A Pair of Two Doubles
by WaterBlaster
Summary: Ash, Misty and Brock arrive at a town that holds a yearly Pokémon festival. Eager to participate in this Poké-Party, Ash doesn't think twice about going, until he finds out the ticket in is a person of the opposite gender! AAMRN and a happy ending for Bro
1. Reaching a New Town

Before you begin reading, I'd just like to say that this fanfic was originally posted at the forums, and my A/N are all the same here as they were when the chapters were posted there, in 2004. So you don't have to pay much attention to them.   
That's all! Enjoy the fic now, please? And review, if you get the chance! This was my very first fic, so it'd be important to me to see what you think of it! 

WB

**_Disclaimer:_** Nope, I don't own "Pokémon" or anything related to it. All I own is my mind, but I don't want to be blamed for what can come out of it! ;;

A Pair of Two Doubles

_Chapter 1_ - _"Reaching a New Town"_

The rustling of leaves and twigs on the grassy floor was barely heard, for the sound of bamboos, or what looked like bamboos, being pushed to the side was definitely louder. This was a different kind of bamboo patch. Instead of lots of these wierd trees being clustered together, they were apart from each other. Not too far; it was still hard to walk between them, but not too close together as to not being able to walk there at all.

Three young Pokémon trainers walked through this awkward place: a ten year old boy from Pallet Town, a twelve year old girl from Cerulean City and a fourteen year old boy from Pewter City. Joining them was a yellow mouse-like Pokémon that kept leaping from side to side, avoiding the pointy twigs from hurting its tiny little paws. It was Pikachu, Ash's first Pokémon and best buddy. Another Pokémon was kept outside of its pokéball too: it was Togepi, a small and yellow baby Pokémon that was still kept inside the shell of its egg. Or was that shell part of its body? Nobody knew for certain, but that didn't stop it from being tightly held by its trainer, Misty, against her body. It felt safe, so safe that it had fallen asleep.

Even though they were now headed to Viridian City before returning to Pallet, the five of them were still in the region of Johto, and the Johto League had just ended. The youngest trainer, Ash, had made the top 8th place in this league. Although kind of disappointed for not actually being the champion, he was very proud of himself, especially considering in what place he had come in in the league in Kanto, which was the 16th place. He also knew that his friends were very proud of him, especially his best friends: Misty and Brock. He even knew that his life-long rival, Gary, was proud.

Ash blew away a leaf that was tickling his face. "Brock, I'm getting tired... Do you have any idea of when we are actually going to get to the next town?", he asked while reaching out to open himself a path through the stubborn trees.

"Beats me. I thought we would've reached it by now, but apparently, I was wrong. Unless we took the wrong path..." Brock, the oldest trainer, stopped to check his guidebook again. It was quite hard, though. The whole place seemed kind of dark.

"Brock!" This was Misty. She may look sweet, but she was a pretty tough cookie. "If you have any love for your life, you'd better be kidding!"

"Why, Misty? These things happen sometimes..." Ash knew he shouldn't, but he usually did stick himself in the middle of conversations before thinking twice about what he should say.

Misty shot one of her 'are you talking to me?' glares at him. Brock saw this, and since he didn't want to get caught in the upcoming fight between them, he just started walking straight ahead again. Pikachu followed.

"Oh, you don't say! We wouldn't even be here right now if it weren't for you and your famous 'let's take a shortcut through here' stupid stunt always leading us to the middle of nowhere!" She stuck her face in front of his and he could tell he shouldn't continue. Too bad he only realized that after he opened his mouth.

"Well, if you think it's a 'stupid stunt always leading us to the middle of nowhere', why'd you follow?" He came closer to her and stared straight into her eyes.

"Isn't it obvious? Brock decided to go too! I couldn't just stay there alone!"

"Well, why not? It would have saved us a lot of trouble if you had!"

"Sorry, but I don't plan on doing anything to make your life easier!" As she said this, Misty pulled herself away a bit, as in trying to calm down.

"Oh, really? I think you should know that you're doing a marvelous job, then!" He crossed his arms as he said this.

"Thank you for noticing! Now when are you gonna start doing a good job at anything?"

They just kept on yelling at each other. It was practically impossible to get them to stop.

Brock, who was way ahead of them, caught a glimpse of light when he pushed aside one of the bamboo-like trees.

"Hey! Look, Pikachu! I think that's it!" Brock looked at Pikachu and they both smiled. That didn't last long, though. They both soon looked back and sighed as Ash and Misty argued some more.

"Argh. Pikachu, how do you think Togepi can sleep through all of that?" He once again looked at the Pokémon on the floor. Pikachu's shrug followed a "Pika...".

"Ash! Misty! We found it! The town is just ahead!" Brock yelled from where he was standing. Pikachu waved its arms around so that its trainer and his friend would notice them.

Ash and Misty both stopped arguing at the same time to face Brock. Brock had good timing; from the looks of it, they were almost ready to attack each other.

"Finally! Now get out of my face, Ash!" Misty yelled as she punched his shoulder. That made Ash lose his balance, making him move a few steps to the left.

"Argh!" Ash put his hand over his 'newly-punched' shoulder. "You didn't have to tell me to get out of your ugly face, you know? I can tell if something's not pretty!"

Misty just walked on after hearing this remark, although she couldn't help but let a "Humpf!" escape. She ocasionally skipped a rock or two until she reached Brock.

"Look, Misty! There it is!"

"Wow! It's so beautiful, Brock!" She turned around and saw Ash slowly coming towards them. He was so tired, he looked like he was practically dragging himself. "Will 'ya hurry up? I'm tired too! I need a good night's sleep after having to put up with you all day!" She then turned back to the city and started running towards it. "Come on, Brock! We gotta go to the Pokémon Center before there aren't any rooms left!" she said as she looked back at Brock.

"Hey, if that means seeing a Nurse Joy, count me in!" Brock rushed over to Misty and even out ran her! She sweatdropped at this, and so did Ash, who was left behind.

"Humpf..."

Once Ash had gotten close enough to Pikachu, his Pokémon jumped to his arm, climbed it and rested on his shoulder. "Pikapi, chu kapika pi?" If Ash actually could understand what Pikachu said, he would've answered truthfully. But since he could only understand Pikachu's names for them, he just guessed an answer.

"Yeah..." Pikachu knew he didn't understand the question, but that didn't matter to it. It just wanted his friend to be cheerful again, although it knew Ash was just pretty much being himself.

Ash followed Brock and Misty down a somewhat steep hill to the town. He had to run to keep up, because he could no longer see Brock, and he realized that if he didn't do anything about it, he would lose Misty from sight too.

Unfortunately, on his way down, he tripped over a rock and started stumbling down the hill! Pikachu went flying off his shoulder and hit the floor.

As he rolled down, all he could do was think about how his Pokémon was. He managed to try to yell, "Pikachu! Are you okay?", but it came out more like, "Pika... you... ay?". As he asked this, he noticed he was starting to roll faster.

Pikachu stood up, shook its head as to clear its mind and saw its trainer. And his sad fate.

"Pikachupi! Pikachupi!" Pikachu started pointing to the direction Ash was going. It also started to move around like crazy. Ash couldn't see any of this, but he could hear it.

'_Pikachupi'? If I'm not mistaken, Pikachu calls one of us like that! I'm pretty sure I'm 'Pikapi' to him, and 'Pipipi' is Togepi... 'Pikachupi'... No... That couldn't be..._

**SKWANT**

"Waaah!"

Ash had hit something. Nope, not something, it was more of like a 'someone'. And now this someone and Ash himself were tumbling down the hill.

"Ash! What do you think you're doing?" Misty screamed as she held Togepi closer. She wanted to be sure it'd be safe.

"Hey, why are you yelling at me for? This isn't my idea of fun either!"

"If you hurt my Togepi, I swear I'll..."

"I'd never hurt a Pokémon!"

Brock, who had actually reached the entrance of the town, looked back, a bit irritated, and said, "What's all that fuss back there? You guys are ruining my daydreams of Nurse Joy! I can't even hear myself think and..." He finally realized what he was looking at: two pairs of legs and one pair of arms were flying around in a disastrous way from a rolling ball made of two human bodies.

"Ash? Misty? How can those two keep yelling at each other when they're in the middle of something like that?" Brock asked himself. He looked at what was ahead of the two: it was a wall that separated the town from the area where wild Pokémon could roam freely.

"Look out, you guys!"

**THUD**

Their trip was finally over. Both were upside down: Ash's back hit the wall and Misty's hit his chest.

Misty immediately straightened herself up and turned to Ash, crouched down.

"Are you okay?" She actually looked worried, and Ash couldn't be more surprised.

"I'm gonna be fine," Ash replied while standing up. He didn't even look at Misty, but he could tell she looked up at him while he stood.

Brock and Pikachu rushed up to Ash and Misty.

"Hey, how are you two?" Brock asked.

Misty didn't mean to ignore him, but she did.

"You don't have to be such a snob, 'ya know! I was rolling down that hill because of you, not the other way around!" She just felt the need to yell this at Ash.

This time, Ash was the one ignoring Misty. "I'm okay, Brock! Now let's head to that Pokémon Center!"

"Ooh! Nurse Joy!" Brock was once again love-struck. He started skipping as he headed for the town entrance. Ash started to follow as soon as his trusty Pikachu leaped to his shoulder and sat there again.

Misty had been staring at them all this time, with a face that was partly sadened and partly angered. She stood up and looked at her Togepi, who was almost crying. She started rocking it in her arms and said in a soft voice, "It'll be alright." She actually didn't know if she said that to Togepi or to herself.

Before Ash entered the town, he looked back at one of his best friends. "She'll be alright..." he said to himself in a low voice. Pikachu let out a "Chu..." in agreement. Ash once again set off in search of the Pokémon Center.

Misty let out another one of her snorts and just started running towards the entrance of the town. "Wait for me! Ash Ketchum!"

As soon as Ash realized this, he began running too. "See?", he chuckled to himself with a grin rested on his face.

- End Chapter 1-

So? What d'ya think? I know it wasn't great, but this is my first fic and I need some time to grow. :) I also know that this sounded like a 'one-shot' (thanks, Kiori! ;)) fanfic, but this was just my first chapter! It's really here to kind of tell you where and when the story occurs.

Please leave your reviews! And criticize all you want: vocabulary, grammar, characters' ages (I get the feeling this one will come up a couple of times :p), plot, coherence, etc.

Just in case you were wondering: yes, the 'pretty tough cookie' part actually came from the Chikorita episode, "The Chikorita Rescue"... **lol**

I hope you come back to review future chapters!

Oh! And the title of this fanfic was based on a comedy program in Brazil. Pretty cute, isn't it? **lol**

And just one more thing: sorry about the lame onomatopias (sp?)... **sweatdrops** But they're probably gonna come up again in the upcoming chapters, so look out for 'em!


	2. The Pokémon Center

**A Pair of Two Doubles**

_Chapter 2 - "The Pokémon Center"_

**SWISH**

"Nurse Joy! Nurse Joy! Where is she?" Brock asked excitedly as he entered the Pokémon Center. "Nurse Joy! Where are you, my sweetheart?" He was practically crying now, for he was not able to find her. He ran over to the counter and looked both ways. "Nurse Joy!"

Ash sighed as he entered the Pokémon Center soon after. "I guess he'll never learn, Pikachu." The Pokémon who was sitting on his right shoulder nodded.

**SHISS**

A big pink Pokémon popped its head from behind the reception desk. It was wearing a little nurse hat and looked very happy. "Chansey!" it squealed while lifting its small arms up as soon as it saw the new people who had just entered the establishment.

"Chansey!" Ash was always excited to see a Pokémon, no matter how many times he had seen it before. They were always so new and exciting to him. He started to walk towards Chansey. "Chansey, do you think..."

"Chansey!"

Ash skipped a beat when he saw something quickly make its way between him and the pink Pokémon.

"Where's Nurse Joy? I just _have_ to see her! Now!" The 'something' asked in desperation as he supported himself with his hands over the counter.

Ash sweatdropped when he realized it was Brock. "Brock!" He knew, however, that scolding Brock was useless.

"Oh, why, hello there. I'm Nurse Joy. Is there anything I can do for you?" Nurse Joy pleasantly asked while stepping into the lobby. She was wearing her usual short pink dress with her usual white apron over it.

"Nurse Joy!" Brock was the one who squealed this time. He ran over to her and gently yet swiftly cupped his hands around hers. He started to blush as he quickly said, "Nurse Joy, everybody is born for a reason, and now that we have met, I have found mine!"

"Uh..." Nurse Joy was speechless.

"Would you like to get together this evening for a cup of my famous tea and stew?"

Ash looked out of one of the two windows in the room. "Please, Brock. The 'evening' is practically here already. There's no way she can leave in such short notice..." Ash replied before Nurse Joy ever got the chance to. Although, from his point of view, even if Nurse Joy had the chance to answer, she wouldn't have said anything because she looked very shocked with Brock's sudden proposal.

"But 'ya see, Ash, Nurse Joy is one of the most kindhearted people in the world! She'd never let anybody down!" He looked at her with even more desperate need for affection in his eyes.

"Yeah, but who'd want to drink tea and have some stew at the same time? Making her do that is just cruel..." he whispered to Pikachu. The Pokémon couldn't help but chuckle. Ash looked at it with a satisfied grin on his face. He loved making his yellow friend glad.

Ash sighed. _Brock's never going to give her a break. But this is wierd. I have never seen Brock's attempts to get a girlfriend ever last so long. I wonder what's different..._

He suddenly got some sense knocked into him._ Misty... She's not here to cool Brock off... _He looked around.

"Hey! Where's Misty, Pikachu?"

Pikachu flipped its head to all directions searching for their red-headed friend. "Pika..." it said in an uncertain way. It leaped from its trainer's shoulder and landed on the floor. Pikachu approached the entrance doors to look out the glass. Unfortunately, since it was getting dark outside, all it could see was its own reflection.

**SWISH**

"Well, thanks a lot for waiting for me..." Misty sarcastically remarked as she joined them in the Pokémon Center. She panted lightly while she said this.

Pikachu knew Ash and Misty would be okay, even though it predicted another fight. It was more concerned about Togepi. But as soon as it looked at the little egg Pokémon, it realized it was being silly, for Togepi couldn't look more peaceful in Misty's arms if it wanted to. Pikachu wondered how it could look so calm after tumbling down a steep hill with two people loudly arguing throughout the entire event. It came to the conclusion that Misty must be an excellent mother.

**SHISS **

"Uh... Sorry..." Ash responded, scratching the back of his head.

"Be quiet. I don't think I want to hear your voice anymore today." Misty coldly replied with her head held up high and her eyes closed. She walked past him.

"But..."

Misty turned around and once again used her threatning glare.

Ash sighed. _Fine, but I'm only doing this because I no longer feel like fighting today. It's way too late and I'm tired. It has nothing to do with you asking me to... _He imagined sticking out his tongue at her while thinking this. He knew that sticking out his tongue at her was definitely not the best way to prevent a fight, but just imagining it made him feel better.

Misty scanned the lobby. The Pokémon Center's one was a calm little place with white walls and with a light green marble floor. There was a pink counter a few feet from the automatic sliding doors and about three other doors and a corridor leading to unknown places. She could also see a dark green cozy couch placed right by the window. She decided to sit on it.

"Where's Brock?" she suddenly asked as she sat down. She sounded like nothing had happened between her and Ash just a few seconds ago.

Ash just stood there. He looked at Pikachu and Pikachu looked back at him. Neither knew what they were supposed to do.

"Are you deaf? I asked you where Brock was!" Misty turned to look at Ash.

"Hey! What do you expect me to do? You just told me be quiet!" he pointed out, a little confused at what had just happened. He placed both his fists on his waist. But, now that he thought about it, he didn't know where Brock was. He figured he was probably following Nurse Joy around.

"Humpf!" Misty snorted. She looked away and directed her sight out into the sky. It was the beginning of the evening, and the sky, although was mostly dark blue, had some portions of it tinged in an orange hue. The sun was about to disappear behind two little yellow houses which stood right in front of the window.

"Please, Nurse Joy! My heart is very delicate and it needs your love and affection to keep it from shattering into smithereens!"

Ash and Misty both heard Brock whine to Nurse Joy as she returned to the lobby. Brock was obviously following her.

"Argh, Brock..." Misty picked herself up from the couch, leaving Togepi withdrawn in its egg on a cushion. Pikachu imediately trotted itself over to the couch and plopped beside it. It gently patted Togepi's egg shell. "Pipipi..."

Ash saw this and thought he did a fine job raising Pikachu. It was such a caring Pokémon. Except that his eyes soon landed on a familiar scene.

"Brock! If you don't stop right now, you're not even gonna have a heart to be shattered!" Misty grabbed Brock by his left ear and pulled him away. This hurt Brock imensly. He had to let go off Nurse Joy or else he thought he would pass out from the pain.

Ash saw the whole scene and couldn't help but smirk at the way his friends always acted.

"Uh... Nurse Joy? We were just wondering if you had any rooms left for us here in the Pokémon Center..." Misty politely asked Nurse Joy with a ear beloning to Brock in between two of her fingers. He kept frantically yelling in pain. Misty could easlily ignore this.

"Oh, we sure do! I'm afraid we only have one, though... But I'm sure that the three of you could sleep in there just fine!" She decided not to mind the boy who kept wildly moving around, because she could see that his friends didn't seem to care much, so she smiled. "Unless there are more people who will be joining you later..." she added as with a concerned look on her face.

"Oh, no! It's just the three of us! One room will be just fine!" As soon as Misty said this, she let go off Brock. He covered his ear with both hands. "Oww..."

"Well, then. Let me show you to your rooms." Nurse Joy got a key from behind the counter and with her calm voice, continued, "Follow me." She left for the corridor.

"Right behind 'ya, my sweet angel!" Brock skipped after her with a dreamy smile on his face. Misty watched and thought that she didn't pull on Brock's ear hard enough. She sighed.

The Cerulean City Gym Leader went back to where the couch was and carefully lifted Togepi. "Thank you for taking care of it, Pikachu..." she whispered to the mouse-like creature who had kept her baby Pokémon company. She scratched its head and Pikachu sweetly responded to this act with a "Pi..."

"Nurse Joy! Please don't leave me here alone! Can't I stay with you at the reception desk? You look like you had a busy day and that you could use some aid..."

Ash and Misty both heard Brock whining once again to Nurse Joy from way down the corridor. They sighed. Once each of them realized that the other had done the same, they lightly giggled.

"Well, let's go then!" Ash said. Misty smiled in agreement. They both walked down the corridor. "Good night, Chansey!" he said as he walked past the Pokémon.

"Sweet dreams!" Misty added.

"Chansey! Chansey!" Chansey happily recited as they left the lobby. It hopped from one foot to another repeatedly.

Pikachu jumped off the couch and followed its trainer.

When they approached the doorway to their room, they looked puzzled. Brock was on one knee and he held up a bouquet of red roses to Nurse Joy. She just held both of her hands up in a 'that won't be necessary' way.

"Brock!" they screamed in unison as they entered.This diverted all of Nurse Joy's attention to them. Brock, however, just kept on making run-on sentences that compared his qualities to flowers.

"Oh, now that you're here, I'll leave you three to your own business!" The kind nurse seemed relieved to see them there. She quickly left the room and closed the door behind her. Ash was pretty sure he heard her say from the other side of it, "Whew, Chansey. That was awkward..."

He quietly laughed at this. Pikachu, who stood right beside the closed door, did too.

"Brock, aren't you tired of making us have to go through all of this everyday, already?" Misty frowned as she asked him this. Brock just sat in the corner of the room moving his index finger in a circular motion in a gloomy way on the floor while he mumbled to himself, "Nurse Joy..."

Misty carefully put Togepi down on a nearby bed and covered it with a quilt decorated with Pokéballs. Once again, her attention was turned to Brock at the moment.

Ash looked around. The room had four beds in it: two were part of a bunk bed and the other two weren't. He glanced over at Misty. She looked too worried about Brock's problem. He then glanced over at the top bed. She must have caught him doing this, because she soon turned around and both jumped over to the top bed and shouted, "I call the top bed!"

Both were now supporting themselves on the top bunk bed with their arms. Some of their legs dangled down and some of their feet were standing on the wooden base of the lower bed.

"Get off!" Ash started. He shoved her to the right.

"No, you get off!" She replied. She then shoved him to the left.

"No, you do!"

"No way, I was here first!"

"No you weren't! I was!"

"Was not!"

"Was too!"

"Was not!"

"Was too!"

"But you never sleep on the top bed!"

"Well, maybe I would if you ever gave me the chance to!"

"Why should I be the one who leaves?"

"Because I was the one who won in 8th place in the Johto League and I need to sleep on a bed that's comfortable and recharge all of my energy for my next journey!"

Misty suddenly froze for a while. She was still frowning, but she thought for a moment and suddenly let go off the bed. She put her feet back on the floor, one at a time, and took a few steps back. Her frown started to disappear.

"What's the matter?" Ash asked. He looked back at the red-headed girl, still clinging onto the bed, of course. He never saw his friend give up so easily, especially on something both of them were fighting over.

The water Pokémon trainer sighed and drooped her head. "You're right..."

"Huh?" He was dumbfounded.

"You're right. You came in a great place in a very tough league. You should get the bed today..." She lifted her face and smiled sweetly at him.

"Uh... Thanks..." he cautiously replied. _Maybe it's a trick_, he thought. He carefully let go off the bed and hopped back on the floor. The future Pokémon Master stood by his newly acquired bed.

Misty approached him, but he was ready to jump back on the bed if he had to. She stopped right in front of him, put both her hands on her waist and, with a childish grin, said, "But only today! And when we get to Pallet Town, I get to sleep on your bed while you sleep on the floor!"

"Uh..."

She giggled at his confused expression and turned around.

Her red backpack was slid from her left arm with the help of her right hand and it was put on a night stand. That made a piece of paper that was placed on the little table fly right off. It landed on the floor.

Pikachu, who was still standing by the door, saw this and decided to check it out. It scurried across the room and reached the paper. It picked it up and lifted it so that its friends could see it. "Pika pichu ka..."

"Huh? What's this, Pikachu?" Misty asked as she knelt down to receive what her friend's Pokémon held out. She read it silently.

"What is it, Misty?" Ash asked. Meanwhile, he climbed up the bunk bed ladder and tossed himself on the top bed.

She looked really excited about what she had just read. Misty looked up from the flyer and happily announced, "It's a festival that this town's going to have."

"A festival?" Ash seemed pretty interested. He liked going to new places and learning different things about different cultures. He sat up and looked her.

"Uhuh," she confirmed.

"When are they gonna have it?"

"In a couple of days."

"Great!" he enthusiastically remarked. "We could stay here for a little while before we head back to Viridian City!" He twisted his body so that he completely faced Misty. "What are they celebrating?"

"Well..." she began. "Stuff that you just aren't mature enough to understand..." She acted like a superior person as she replied.

"Hey!" he sneered. "What is it?" Ash hated to be treated as a little kid.

"They're celebrating love..."

-End Chapter 2-

Hello, all:) I hope you liked this chapter! I know the end kind of sounded cheesy, but don't worry! The story won't be cheesy, you'll see! So please leave your reviews, which would include comments, suggestions and anything else you feel like saying. Or just drop by and say "Hi!".

Anyway, I was wondering if anybody could tell me which of these is correct: "desperate need of" or "desperate need for". And also, did you understand the 'bunk bed' situation? I wasn't sure of how to describe it... I'm sorry to bug you with this, but when I write and I have a doubt about something, I almost always need to know the answer... ;)

Oh, and yeah, I know I REALLY need a thesaurus... **lol**

I will consider those who can guess what the lame onomatopias (sp?) **SWISH** and **SHISS** stand for geniuses.**lol**

Why do I make Ash and Misty fight and all of a sudden make them act like nothing happened between them, you ask? 'Cause that's how I see them! I think it's SO cute...

And about Ash and Misty fighting over the top bed: I know they've never done this before, but in my mind, they're normal kids. Most normal kids love to sleep on the top bunk bed, so I made them love it too! Heck, I'm 15 years old and I'd wrestle a little kid for the top bed! **lol**


	3. Evening Routines

**A Pair of Two Doubles**

_Chapter 3 - "Evening Routines"_

Ash wrinkled his nose. "Love? Why would somebody want to celebrate that?" He once again laid on the bed. Meanwhile, Brock stood up in the corner of the room and started to tremble in a very hyper way.

Misty noticed him, yet decided that lecturing Ash would be more entertaining. "Why do you have to be so dense, Ash? I've told you before that love is one of the most important things in our lives!" She hugged the flyer tightly and twisted her body from one way to another repeatedly. Her eyes were closed as she did this. Misty looked like she was dreaming a beautiful dream.

"Meh. Never mind what I said before. Let's just leave for Viridian City tomorrow," he ignored her with a look of desinterest on his face.

Misty's dreamy face instantly turned into a 'you easily get on my nerves' face. She was about to open her mouth to react to Ash's complete disregard to one of the most intimidating yet incredible feelings anyone could ever experience, but Brock excitedly ran over to her and startled his female friend.

"Misty! Is this true? Is this town really gonna have a festival just in the honor of love?" He looked deep into her eyes and strongly desired for a certain answer. She knew which one it was, and she was glad she was about to give him the one he expected. She'd hate to have to hurt the feelings of one of her best friends, although Brock's obsession over this did bother her a bit.

"Yep! It sure is, Brock! Isn't this great?" Misty smiled at him. She liked the fact that at least one of them liked this subject as much as she did. No, wait. She thought this over and quickly realized that Brock definitely liked it more than she did. Or, at least, apparently he did.

"YES! What better way to get together with Nurse Joy than to go with her to a romantic festival?" Brock left the room in a flash. Ash and Misty stared at him as his fast actions took over. They could only guess what he was going to do: ask Nurse Joy to the festival.

When they regained their senses and remembered that they were about to start another discussion, Misty calmly continued, "Well, fine then. You can leave tomorrow if you'd like. But I'm staying and I'm going to this festival and I'm gonna see all those wonderful new Pokémon!" She crossed her arms and turned around so that her back faced Ash. "Oh, and Brock too, by the way," she quickly added.

He suddenly sat up again. "Uh... Pokémon?" he asked shyly.

Misty evilly smiled. She knew that the Pokémon part would definitely change his mind. "That's right! Pokémon! It says here that this festival is a kind of meeting for Pokémon to find their mates. There's bound to be plenty of different Pokémon there!"

"Hey, if this thing's going to feature Pokémon, then count me in!"

Misty was satisfied with herself. She sat on the bed that was across from the bunk beds and kept on reading the flyer. "This also states that there are two rules you must follow to participate in this festival. One; each person has to take at least one Pokémon."

"That'll be easy. I think I'll take Pikachu..." Ash looked over at his Pokémon. It was no longer by the night stand; now it was up on the bed with him.

"Pika..." it thanked its trainer. Ash patted Pikachu's back and chuckled.

"And two..." Misty's eyes widened.

"What? What's rule number two?"

"The people must be paired up. In other words, only couples are allowed in there..." she nervously replied. She looked up at Ash.

"Uh..." Ash didn't know what to answer. "Let's see... We're three... Two boys and one girl..." He realized he had the perfect opportunity to tease her as he said this, "...or, at least, someone who claims to be a girl..."

"Grr..." she tried to hold herself back, but it was too much for her to handle. "You'd better watch what comes out of that big mouth of yours!" she shouted as she threw the nearest pillow at him. It hit him square in the face and made him fall on his back. He was thankful to be on the bed, because he knew that situation might've turned ugly if he had fallen on something hard.

Pikachu shook its head as in not being able to believe that they were fighting again. It grabbed the edge of the pillow with its small paws and dragged the it away from the brunet's face. The yellow Pokémon placed it beside Ash.

"Tha..., Pika..." he tried to say, but he was still too dizzy from the awful combination of Misty's aim and power and the Pokémon Center pillow.

"Anyway," she continued, with a hint of annoyance on her face, "they prefer that each couple takes a Pokémon of each gender. That way, the festival will have as many males as female Pokémon and the chances of your Pokémon finding a mate for itself will increase."

Ash sat up once more, but held his head with his hands. He was still kind of confused.

"You don't have to hold your head, Ash. I know it's big, but trust me, it's stuck to your body, so you can't lose it..." Misty teased him.

"Argh!" He looked at her. "Hey, quit buggin', will 'ya?"

"Me? You're the one who started it!"

"No, I didn't! You did!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"Pi... ka... CHUU!"

ZTAAAZCK

Ash and Misty both fell over, burnt into crisps.

"Pikachu... Chu pika pi..." Pikachu had used its Thunderbolt attack on them. It was about time too, in its opinion. They had been fighting quite a lot that day.

Togepi just opened one little eye, looked at its friends, and soon fell asleep again. It was used to these kinds of situations.

-

Meanwhile, outside the window of their room, a very familiar trio eavesdropped on the entire conversation. They were crouched down under the window and hidden in some bushes.

"Did you hear that? The twerps are going to a festival..." Jessie evilly grinned.

"Yes, and a festival that will offer plenty of cute Pokémon couples..." her partner, James, added.

"And we're gonna swipe 'em all!" Meowth, one of the very few existing Pokémon who could talk, joined in.

Jessie nodded. "Yes. Now, you both know what we're going to do, right?"

"I sure do! I'm gonna find a nice mate for my Weezing!" James happily replied as he held up his Pokéball which contained Weezing.

SWIP

"HE HUH HUH HUH..."

Jessie hit James's head with one of her harmless-looking-yet-extremely-powerful paper fans. "Grr... Not that, James! We're gonna go to the festival too!" She backed herself a bit. "Besides, Weezing is just way too ugly to find a mate..."

As soon as James finished whining and patting the bump on his head, he carefully covered the Pokéball with both his hands and whispered to her, "Ssh! Don't let Weezing hear you!" He put the Pokéball away and angrily said, "I bet my Weezing would be able to find itself a mate a lot faster than your Arbok!"

"What are you talking about? My Arbok is extremely charming... Just like me! It would be able to find a mate in the blink of an eye."

"That's not true and you know it!"

"Dat's enough outta da both of 'ya!" Meowth flashed his claws, jumped up and scratched the faces of both Team Rocket agents. "If 'ya don't be quiet, dem twerps will hear 'ya and come here and we'll be blasting off sooner dan we usually do!"

"Grr! How dare you?" Jessie's anger was building up. She grabbed the Pokémon by the neck and would have tossed it into the garbage can of one of the houses on the other side of the street. But, luckily for Meowth, James wrapped his arms around her arm that held him.

"Jessie! Meowth's right!"

"Grr..." She seemed to be calming down. "Fine. I'm not going to waste my time with you, you little fur ball..." Jessie sent it flying against the wall of the Pokémon Center.

"Waah!"

TONK

"Look, we gotta go as a couple to that festival, but we need two Pokémon to join us!"

"True... Unfortunately, I guess we're stuck with _that_..." she mumbled as she glanced over at Meowth, who was fixing the charm on its forehead because of the incident that had just happened.

"Well, then, we need another Pokémon..."

SSWAN

"Woh buffet!" Wobbuffet, as usual, had popped out of its Pokéball willingly.

"Wobbuffet... What do you think, James?" Jessie asked as she looked at him.

"Humm..." James pondered for a while. "Yes, I think Wobbuffet will do. It'd be the resolution to our earlier debate on if whether Weezing or Arbok would find a mate first..."

Jessie giggled. "Ha!" she said as she pointed at him. "I win! We're taking _my_ Pokémon! Not your Weezing! Not your Victreebel! But _my_ Wobbuffet!"

"Well, that may be so, but Wobbuffet is so pathetically embarrassing that I'd rather have you take the blame for taking it to the festival..." he wisely remarked.

"What are you talking about? My Wobbuffet couldn't possibly embarrass anybody! Wanna see?" She picked Meowth from the floor and threw it in Wobbuffet's direction. "Quick, Wobbuffet! Which attack would you use against a Headbutt?"

"Waah! I just fixed my charm!" Meowth yelled as he was about to meet up with the blue Pokémon.

"Woh buffet! Wob wob!" Wobbuffet acted kind of clueless. Suddenly, a red light surrounded it.

SPLAT

Meowth and Wobbuffet where both sent away at a very high speed.

James smiled. "You see? Your Wobbuffet can't even tell the difference between a Mirror Coat attack from a Counter attack."

"Grr!" She faced James again, neglecting both Pokémon, who were leaned against a tree. "Well, if I'm taking responsility for Wobbuffet, than that means Meowth is yours!" She crossed her arms and smirked, "Good luck!"

James realized that what Jessie had said was true. All he could do was sigh.

-

Back in the Pokémon Center, Misty laid down on the bottom bunk bed.

"Ah... It's so nice be able to lay down on a warm, comfortable bed after walking around for an entire day!" She pulled up the covers and snuggled under them. Togepi was withdrawn beside her pillow.

"It sure is, isn't it..." Ash replied from the top bed. He had already been under his covers for the last ten minutes, making sure Misty wouldn't take the top bed at any chance she got. Pikachu rested by his chest.

"Uh... Misty?"

"Yeah?"

"Where's Brock?"

"He's probably trying to convince Nurse Joy to go with him to the festival."

"But shouldn't she be done with declining his proposal by now?" Ash and Misty had no hopes for Brock to get a girl to go out with him. At least not if he were to act in that goofy way he always does.

Misty giggled. "I guess you're right. Maybe we should go check on him..."

Ash agreed, and as he sat up on his bed, the bedroom door was opened and the lights were lit.

Brock walked in with a depressed look on his face.

"What's the matter Brock?" Misty asked as she stood up and came nearer to him. She and Ash both knew what had happened, but they didn't want to take the risk of saying it and getting Brock even more depressed.

"There aren't... There aren't..." he started as he sobbed.

_Any girls who'd like to go to the festival with me!_ Ash and Misty both thought of the rest of that sentence.

Brock sniffed. He tried to finish what he was saying, but he couldn't.

Misty couldn't handle it anymore. Many girls didn't accept his offer in the past, why would this time be any different?

"Oh, I know, I know... Nurse Joy decided not to go with you..."

Brock looked up at her and covered her mouth with his hands. "Don't say that!" he yelled.

Misty looked shocked. She grabbed his wrists and pushed them away. "Hey! Don't do that!"

Pikachu moved aside on the bed so that Ash could jumped off it and approach his friends. "Well, Brock, is that what happened?"

"No!" Brock said as he closed the door making sure Nurse Joy couldn't hear them. "I can't invite Nurse Joy to a romantic festival without the proper clothes! I was walking around this town and found no stores open! Now I have to wait until later so I can buy the perfect clothes to ask the perfect girl for the perfect date!"

"Oh..." Ash and Misty both reacted surprised at the same time.

"Well, Brock, if that's the problem, I can help you with that! The stores will probably open up tomorrow. I'll help you pick out your clothes!" Misty comforted him as she patted his back.

"Really?"

"Of course! It's a promise!"

"Thank you, Misty! I really need some help!" he practically cried over her arm.

"He sure does..." Ash whispered to Misty. She giggled at what Ash said and sweatdropped at what Brock had said before.

"I'm gonna go take a shower now..." Brock said as he left the room.

Once the door closed, Ash looked at Misty. "You're gonna go shopping tomorrow?"

"Well, I guess. I gotta help Brock."

"Oh. Well, I think I'll take Pikachu sight-seeing..."

Misty looked unsatisfied. "Why don't you two come with us?" She asked cheerfully.

"Shopping? No way..."

"Oh, come on! It'll be fun!"

Ash climbed up the ladder and laid on his bed. "I don't want to. It's boring."

Misty put her hands on her waist. "Not it's not!" she said. Ash didn't answer. He pretended to be sleeping, but Misty could tell he was forcing his eyes shut. She had no other choice.

She came closer to the bunk bed, put one foot at a time on the wooden support of the lower bed and placed her elbows on the top bed. She supported herself on the bed the same way she had earlier, when she fought Ash for it. Except this time, her face was about three inches away from his.

Pikachu curiously kept its eye on the girl.

_Maybe she went to sleep_, Ash thought. He dared open one of his eyes, but found Misty right in front of him.

"Waah!" He jumped up. "You startled me!" He started to blush a little after having Misty's face so close to his.

"Please come with us tomorrow..." she asked. She used her sweet voice to ask this. Ash thought that was low, very low...

He sighed. "Fine." He looked at her and felt great as soon as a smile popped up on her face. Of course, he had to keep his image of a tough person, so he added, "But this shopping thing'd better not take all day!"

"It won't! Don't worry!" Misty said as she happily returned to the floor and tucked herself in again.

Ash let his back fall freely against the mattress and sighed.

"Uh... Misty?"

"Yeah?" He still could tell she had a hint of joy in her words. He felt free to smile, for Misty couldn't see him.

"Could you maybe turn off the lights?"

-End Chapter 3-

So, what now? Love it, like it, hate it? I don't mind which one, just please let me know what you think of the fanfic so far:D

Let's see... Somethings I'd like to clear up:

Sorry for the long chapter! I seem to be writing more than usual...

In the very beginning of this chapter, when Misty says that love is important in OUR lives, I meant in everybody's lives, not just her and Ash's. But we get these mixed messages all the time in the anime, so interpret this line as you'd like. ;) What I meant has nothing to do with what Misty meant...

Yep, of course I added Team Rocket! "Pokémon" wouldn't be "Pokémon" without our cute little villains! ;)

Does anybody know the word for when a cat 'flashes' its claws? **lol** Yes, this is what I wrote, but I'd like to know the actual verb for this. I know there's one, and once I find out which one it is, I'd like to replace my stupid version the real one... Could anybody help me?

I've just hit the critical part of the fic. We're gonna have to be able to tell the difference between some male and female Pokémon. I don't want to guess their genders, so I'll use my common sense to try to avoid the situation of saying a Pokémon is of a certain gender when we might later find out in the anime that it's of the opposite one.

I hope the title of this chapter is clear. If you don't understand, just ask me and I'll explain, okay?

Okay, now please review! Oh, and how'd ya like the ending? I actually laughed when I wrote that... **lol** Yes, I am a rare type of wierdo... :p


	4. Realizations

**A Pair of Two Doubles**

Chapter 4 - "Realizations" 

**SHISH SHISH**

"Argh..." Ash groaned as his arm was lightly shook by somebody's hand.

"Wake up, Ash..." Misty softly said. When she didn't get much of a response from her friend, she started to lose her temper. "Will 'ya wake up, already? We don't have all day, 'ya know!" she said louder, while shaking him more harshly with both her hands this time.

**SHUSH SHUSH SHUSH SHUSH**

"Waaa!" Ash yelled. He shoved her way with his arm, not knowing who it was. He was lucky she hadn't lost her balance and fallen on the floor. Fortunately, she was able to hold on to the bunk bed ladder. Ash had a feeling that Misty would've really gotten him if that had happened.

He looked at who was shaking him. "Oh... It's only you, Misty..." he said while rubbing his eyes. He yawned right after.

"Well, of course its me!" she sneered. She hopped back on the floor and continued, "Come on, Ash! Hurry up, Brock is already in the cafeteria waiting for us!" She picked up a very happy Togepi and started to tickle the tip of the front spike it had on its head.

"Toge!"

Misty giggled mildly.

"Oh... Okay," Ash replied as he looked over at Pikachu, who was already up.

"Pikapi! Kapi chu pi!" it happily greeted its trainer.

"Good morning, Pikachu!" the boy said while gently patting the Pokémon's furry little head.

Ash threw his covers to the left side of the bed and climbed down the ladder.

"We'll see you at the cafeteria, okay?" Misty asked while she held the door open with one hand and Togepi in her other arm.

"Sure," he responded as he scratched his belly from underneath his shirt. He had an awful sleepy look printed on his face.

Misty couldn't help but grin at the image standing before her. She left the room and closed the door behind her.

"I wonder what's with her..." he asked Pikachu, who only let out a "Pika..." in response.

Out in the Pokémon Center lobby, Misty was quite surprised at how different it looked. The windows were open and the entire room was bright. A very pleasant breeze crossed it, and a very warm sunlight filled it with a very comfortable feeling. She crossed the lobby and went to the cafeteria.

She expected to have a bit of a hard time looking for Brock, for the whole place was very crowded. It definitely didn't look like the Pokémon Center they had walked into the day before. But she was very wrong. She easily spotted Brock jumping around behind Nurse Joy, carrying a bunch of plates on a tray and cups and glasses on another.

Misty sighed. She decided not to pull his ear this time, because he may not have been doing that for a noble cause, but _what_ he was doing was pretty noble itself: helping out Nurse Joy run a crowded Pokémon Center.

"Hey, Misty!" a familiar voice yelled to her from the corridor on the other side of the lobby. The owner of the voice jogged over. "Did you find Brock yet?" Ash asked as he approached his friend. Pikachu was smiling on his shoulder.

Ash was wearing his normal outfit: a pair of blue jeans, a black T-shirt and a blue jacket with some white and yellow details on it. Except this time, he wasn't wearing either his green gloves or his red Official Pokémon League cap. He never wore them when he was about to eat.

"Uh... Just take a look for yourself..." Misty said with a grin as she pointed out into the cafeteria. She carefully held Togepi with her other arm, making sure it wouldn't fall off it when she did this.

Ash forced a smile. "Yeah... That's the Brock we know and love!" He heard the girl chuckle in accordance with him.

"Boy, this place sure looks crowed," he continued. Ash looked around the cafeteria.

"Uhuh," Misty nodded. "I can barely recognize it..."

"Me too," he agreed. He suddenly lifted his right arm up and pulled it back down quickly in an excited way, tightening his fist."Well, I'm starving! Let's go find a place to sit before all the seats are taken!" Ash exclaimed as he grabbed Misty's free hand and started pulling her to an available table.

"Okay, Ash! Take it easy..." she said while being dragged by Ash down the cafeteria. He was going rather quickly, so she was kind of bent down towards him. She was very careful with Togepi, so that was also the reason why she walked slower than her friend.

They had to dodge a few people who stood in their way, but when they finally reached a free table, Pikachu hopped onto it and Ash plopped down on one of the booth's seats. Misty sat down across from him.

"Chansey! Chan chan!" Chansey squealed when it arrived at the booth where both trainers sat. It rolled a cart filled with trays with food on it.

"Good morning, Chansey!" Ash happily told Chansey.

"How are 'ya?" Misty asked soon after.

"Pika!"

"Toge toge prii!"

"Chansey! Sey chan!" it replied. Chansey started to get two trays with regular food and placed them on the table. It then got two bowls with Pokémon food and laid one in front of Pikachu and the other in front of Togepi.

"That's very nice of you, but we're three people, actually," Ash corrected it.

"Chan?" it asked. Chansey placed another tray with regular food on the table and took off.

"Thanks!" Ash turned around to thank it, although he had a feeling it hadn't heard him, since the place was quite noisy. And, of course, there was the fact that the Pokémon was pretty busy.

Nurse Joy suddenly rolled down a cart past their booth. Brock quickly followed, but he accidentally tripped over his own foot and let the two trays fall right in front of him.

**CRINK CLACK CRINK CLASH**

A few dishes and glasses had been bronken, but, luckily, nobody had been hit with them.

"Ah!" he yelled with both hands on his cheeks. "Why must this happen to me right when I have a 'once-in-a-lifetime' opportunity to help Nurse Joy?" He started freaking out.

Nurse Joy looked behind her to see what was going on.

"Oh, it's okay," she calmly said. "You've helped me enough. You should sit down now and help yourself to some breakfast. I can take care of the rest!" The kind nurse smiled and continued working.

Brock stood up, and with his hands together, dreamily remarked, "Nurse Joy! Such a sweet angel! Always so caring and perfect!" He didn't realize people were staring at him, so he just went on, "She does everything correctly!"

Misty stretched her arm out and grabbed Brock by the back of his orange T-shirt. She roughly pulled him down and made him sit on the booth beside her. "Yeah, which is more than I can say for you," she commented.

As the five of them started to have their breakfast, Misty decided to begin a conversation with her friends.

"Brock, do you know why the Pokémon Center is so full today?"

He looked over at her. "Yep! Nurse Joy told me earlier that this place usually got crowded a few days before the festival!"

"Oh..." she said.

Ash wondered how Misty could talk during a meal. He was definitely very hungry.

"Uh... Speaking of the festival, have you guys decided which Pokémon you're going to take with 'ya?" She continued.

_Never mind what I thought before_, Ash's mind told himself, _since the subject is Pokémon now..._

Meanwhile, Chansey cleaned up the mess Brock had caused with the dishes and glasses earlier.

"Well, I think I'm gonna take Pikachu!" Ash said as he swallowed some of his food.

"Pikaa!" the mouse-like Pokémon gladly celebrated.

"Hum... Pikachu?" Brock asked with a confused look.

"Uh... Yeah. Don't you think I should?"

"Well, sure. But I thought maybe you'd take Bayleef with you..."

"Why Bayleef?"

"Think about it, Ash. When Bayleef was a Chikorita, it obviously had a crush on you. Maybe if you took it to this festival, it could meet a Pokémon and realize that it isn't exactly supposed to be having crushes on _people_..."

Ash sighed. "Yeah, I guess you're right. I don't think I'd like to have it jump on me again, since now it's a pretty large Bayleef..." He looked over at his little buddy. It looked misled.

"Wait a minute," Misty cut in. "Didn't the flyer say '_at least one_ Pokémon'? That would mean that Ash can take both Bayleef and Pikachu..."

"Not exactly, Misty," Brock corrected her. "Nurse Joy was telling me how they only put that there just in case the town doesn't get enough people to go to the festival. That way, they won't run low on Pokémon. But this year, there's more than enough people, so if anybody takes more than one, then there will be way too many and the place will get too crowded."

"Oh... That's too bad..." She looked over at Pikachu. It had dropped its ears in a very disappointed manner.

"Don't worry, Pikachu! I'll bring you lots of souveniers!" Ash tried cheering up his friend. It seemed to be getting happier, but only because it didn't want to hurt its trainer's feelings.

"And there will be more Pokémon here too, Pikachu," Misty's attempt of comforting seemed to be working: Pikachu ears started to lift up quite a bit. "I'm gonna have to choose only one Pokémon to take, so I have to leave the rest here. And so do Ash and Brock!" She smiled.

"That's true! All of your buddies will stay too!"

Misty leaned over the table in Pikachu's direction. "I have to leave Togepi too... Will you please help take care of it?" she asked nicely.

"To prii!" Togepi tried convincing the electric Pokémon to stay.

"Pika!" Pikachu squealed. It acted a lot happier now. Ash loved seeing Pikachu happy. And he was very greatful to Misty for helping it feel better. He really admired how she could comfort others with such ease.

"What about you, Misty?" he continued.

She sighed. "I really don't know... I can't take Goldeen, because it'd need a fish tank to swim in. And Corsola and Politoed are more of the playful sort. I can't see them looking for mates..."

"Hum... What about Staryu?" Ash asked.

Brock decided to answer this one. "Staryu has no gender, Ash."

"It doesn't?" Ash was shocked and confused.

"Nope," Misty replied.

"How odd..." he whispered to Pikachu.

"Hum... What about your Psyduck?" Brock suggested.

Misty looked at him. She then grinned evilly as she turned to not face the direction of Ash. "Oh, please, Brock. We'll already have to be in there with Ash. We don't need another dense creature embarrassing us..."

"Huh... Hey!"

"Why don't you take Totodile?" Brock quickly cut in before a fight of any sort started.

"But Totodile isn't my Pokémon."

"I know, but remember how heart-broken it was after it was dumped by that Azumarill and by that Quagsire?"

Misty looked down. She felt kind of sorry for Totodile. "Oh, yeah..."

"Well?"

Misty turned to Ash. "What do you say? May I take Totodile with me?" She once again used her sweet voice on him.

"Uh... Sure. But remember it's _my_ Pokémon. If you want a Totodile, go catch one yourself..." Ash felt the need to warn this. He knew how crazy the red-head was about Water Pokémon.

She once again grinned. "Oh, don't worry!"

Ash still looked at her and thought she was very suspicious. Still, he went along with the conversation.

"Which one are you taking, Brock?"

"Oh! I'm definitely taking Crobat!"

"Why is that?" Misty asked as she gulped down some of her beverage.

"Isn't it obvious? Crobat can fly really high and pinpoint where all the beautiful girls of the festival are standing!" Brock lightly blushed as he excitedly answered.

Ash and Misty both sweatdropped. Misty, however, soon realized something. "Wait a second: aren't you going with Nurse Joy?"

"I'm counting on that!" he enthusiastically replied.

"Well, don't..." Ash whispered to Pikachu. It silently laughed at its trainer's joke.

"But, if you're accompanying her to this thing, why do you need to locate other girls?" She looked kind of disturbed by what Brock had said.

"Just in case. You know... What if Nurse Joy needs to leave for a Pokémon emergency?" He swiftly remarked. The older boy felt pretty sure of himself.

"Hum..." Misty still wasn't convinced.

"Uh... Well, I gotta go now! You two finish eating. I'm gonna go check on my perfect girl!" he quickly said as he left the table. "Nurse Joy! Need any help?" he yelled after her.

Ash and Misty both sighed, then looked at each other.

"I guess Brock really is going with Nurse Joy, isn't he?" Ash asked.

"Yeah... That leaves... The two of us..."

After about a second or two, they both realized something at the same time. They were so shocked, that they, as of out of nowhere, stood up, pointed at each other and furiously blushing deeply, yelled in unison:

"WAAH! I'M GOING WITH YOU?"

It took quite a while until they noticed that the entire cafeteria had been startled.

-End Chapter 4-

So? How was it:)

**sighs** I'm tired... Not to mention, I probably got the flu, so don't REALLY expect to see the next chapter here tomorrow. I'll try to post it up, but no guarantees... Sorry... Oh, well!


	5. Shopping Spree

**A Pair of Two Doubles**

_Chapter 5 - "Shopping Spree"_

**SWISH**

Misty happily darted out of the Pokémon Center. She was pretty excited about going shopping with her friends, and all of this excitment couldn't be contained. Pikachu joined in on her happiness by skipping alongside her, though it was just happy about learning different traditions of yet another town by walking around in it.

A few feet from the front of the center, Misty turned around, still with a big smile on her face, and asked, "Well? Where should we go to first?"

"Toge Prii!" Togepi joyfully chimed in her arms.

Brock and Ash followed in a slower pace, but they weren't nearly as excited. They both stopped walking as soon as they stepped outside.

Brock seemed nervous about having to go buy himself clothes just to ask a girl out. Or, as he put it, 'the perfect clothes that will entirely reflect upon Nurse Joy's decision on whether or not she will go to the festival with him'.

Ash, on the other hand, looked bored. He was never much into this shopping thing. Why somebody would actually like to walk around looking at different colors of cloth to spend their money on was beyond him.

"Uh... I've walked around here last night. I found a lot of clothing stores down this way," Brock said as he started leading the way to said street.

**SHISS**

Misty was pretty surprised at his feelingless reaction. "Uh..." She stepped aside as he walked past her. "Okay..." She glanced over at Ash, who started to walk in Brock's direction. As soon as he turned his face to her, they both looked away and blushed a little. They were still feeling awkward about what they had realized just a few minutes ago back at the cafeteria. Both knew that this strange feeling wouldn't last long, but it was still too soon for either to face each other without a wierd sensation striking them.

As the three trainers and the electric Pokémon walked on, they noticed plenty of people were busy making preparations for the festival. Men and women, both old and young, caused a huge commotion in the town. The place had been so calm the day before; they still had a hard time believing so many people would just appear out of nowhere. However, this was pretty evident, since the festival would be held the next evening.

"This is so cool!" Misty commented. "Look at all the trouble this town goes through just to get ready for this festival!" She hugged Togepi tighter, in a dreamy fashion. "I bet it'll be great!"

Brock had a peculiar look on his face as his friend said this. He started to act a bit more eager. "Yeah! The variety of girls there will be in accordance to my kind of style!" He slobbered.

Misty suddenly stopped, closed her eyes and looked down in a very disturbed way. "What was that?"

"Oh... Nothing! Nothing!" he quickly tried covering for himself.

" 'Ya know, Brock, people are only allowed in this festival if they have a pair. Even if you meet the girl of your dreams in there," she quickly leaned over to Ash and teasingly whispered, "which he most certainly will _again_", then returned to her original position, "she'll already be accompanied by somebody else!"

Brock's first reaction to this was depression. His whole body wilt down like a thirsty flower, but soon shot up again. He had a sly grin on his face. "That may be true, but who's to say some people won't go just as friends... Like you and Ash?" He approached his friends and continued, "Or am I missing something here?" He smiled evilly as they both blushed at his remark.

Misty didn't think twice about punching him right in the face.

"What ever made you assume that?" she furiously yelled at him. Unfortunately, his pain was so strong, he found no will to answer.

"Hey! And what did I do to get thrown into the middle of that conversation like that?" Ash asked as the pink on his cheeks started to very slowly fade away. However, they were still very noticeable.

"Ooww..." was all Brock could reply. He wasn't making the fact that Ash and Misty would have to join each other in a festival any easier. Well, that wasn't the problem, and they all knew it. But why did the festival have to do with 'love' and romantic things?

The group followed Brock's lead to a nearby street.

"Well, this is it..." he once again turned on the 'nervous' mode.

Misty smiled with glee. "Wow! Brock, we're definitely gonna be able to find something nice for you here!" She hadn't completely forgotten what the Pokémon breeder made her go through just a little while ago, but she couldn't help being excited about seeing so many beautiful stores.

Indeed, the place did seem to fill people up with high hopes of finding something they would like, no matter how good or bad the person's taste was. The street had lots of different stores on both sides, all of which were of different colors sizes. Not only did they sell clothes, but toys, appliances, electronics, food, and Ash's personal favorite: Pokémon utilities and trinkets.

As soon as he spotted this particular store, he imediately invited Pikachu, who was on the floor, to run over to the display window with him. It, of course, accepted. "Ooh! Look, Pikachu!" he told his buddy while digging his face deeper into the glass. "Aren't these different types of Pokéballs great?"

"Chuu!" it responded with interest.

Misty and Brock both sighed at how typical the Pokémon trainer was acting.

The female Gym Leader looked over at one of the stores which displayed a wide selection of kimonos on its shop window. Her eyes widened as she saw how one was more beautiful than the other.

"Hey, Brock! Why don't we buy our kimonos for the festival first? Please?" she begged. She knew very well she could just go on ahead and do so herself, but she had promised him to help him pick out 'the perfect clothes' and she wasn't the kind of person you'd expect to see breaking her promises. In fact, all three always kept their promises.

"Well, of course. The clothes I wear during the festival will be just as important!"

Misty smiled at his answer. "Okay! You go on ahead without me, I'll be over in a minute!"

"Okay..." Brock directed himself to the kimono store.

Meanwhile, Misty skipped over to the other side of the street to where Ash was.

"Aren't you coming too?"

"Uh... I'll go later... Let me just... Oh, wow, Pikachu! Look at the picture of this Pokémon!"

Misty looked a little disappointed for not having her friend join them yet, but she knew he soon would. She decided to go on without him.

Before she opened the door to the store, she yelled at him from across the street, "We'll be in here, okay?"

"Okay, okay!" he yelled back in response. But he didn't even stop looking through the glass.

**TLING RING**

Inside the kimono store, Misty saw Brock holding the saleswoman's hands. He had a very grateful look on his face while she had a wierd one. Misty didn't even bother to listen to what her goofy friend was saying, because she knew very well what it was. She grabbed his right ear and dragged him to the other side of the store.

"Listen, Brock, if you want to take Nurse Joy with you to the festival, then stop asking other girls if they'd like to go!"

"Oww... Okay, okay..." he said with a sob. As soon as she let go, he continued, "But I just wanted to know if anybody else was available, just in case she couldn't make it!"

"Humpf" was all the girl could reply while resting her free fist on her waist. The arm of the other one kept Togepi against her chest.

She examined the place. Although small, it was quite a nice store. Its floor was made of wood, and there nice paintings up on the walls. Other than the store clerk, there were three other people in there, two of whom were admiring themselves in the big mirrors by the dressing rooms. The other one was looking at a picture that hung on a wall.

"Well, do you have any preference in color?" Misty suddenly asked.

"Huh?"

"Color. For your kimono, remember?"

"Oh! Hum..." Brock pondered for a while with his thumb and index finger on his chin. "I, personally, don't mind which color I use. But Nurse Joy seems to like pink. Maybe I could use a pale pink one!" he gladly announced.

"Uhh..." Misty sweatdropped. "Maybe I should choose for you..."

He was silent for a while. "What?"

She forced a smile. "Just a tip: hire a fashion consultant whenever you need to dress up..." she grinned as she flapped her hand up and down repeatedly in a 'never mind' way.

The girl walked over to a long display of folded kimonos on wooden shelves and put Togepi down. Brock followed as she started looking them over. She started to walk along the shelves picking up a few kimonos and handing them to him as she said, "Oh! This one looks nice... And I bet you'd look great in this... This one too... And this... Look at that one!" Togepi kept on cheerfully chirping and joining her.

By the end of the shelves, she turned over to him and, with a grin, said, "Well, hurry up! I can't wait to see them!"

"Okay..." Brock sweatdropped as he took the large pile of clothes to where the saleswoman pointed to revealing it was were the dressing rooms were. He shyly smiled at her, but Misty didn't catch this.

"I'll be waiting!" she called out as he turned his back.

As soon as he left, she looked down at Togepi and smiled.

"Wanna help pick something out for me, Togepi?"

"Prii! Toge prii!" it delightfully squealed in her hands.

She giggled and took it over to the section of feminine kimonos. Once again, Togepi was put down on the floor.

"Humm... These kimonos are so beautiful..." she commented to both herself and Togepi while she admired a few. "I wonder which one Ash would like..."

"Toge?"

"Uhh... For me, of course!" She lightly blushed.

"Prii!"

"Why d'ya look so red, Misty?" Brock asked out of nowhere. He was able to see her cheeks from where he was standing, but not her eyes. Although they were in fact a bit pink, this was easily noticeable when compared to her light skin color, therefore making Brock label them as 'so red'.

His quietness to approach her definitely startled her, causing her to jump up and blush a bit more.

"Uhh... Me? Red?" She started laughing nervously. "You must be imagining things!"

Brock had a confused look on his face, especially after Misty responded so nervously to such an innocent question.

After she calmed down a little, she was able to quickly change the subject as soon as her eyes laid upon him. She ignored his expression and the doubtful way he crossed his arms in front of his chest.

"Wow! That one looks really good on you, Brock!" she said as she walked around him, examining the wonderful faded green cloth. "Do you like it?" she asked as soon as she ended up in front of him once again.

"Uhh... Yeah, I guess..."

"What about you, Togepi?" They looked down at the baby Pokémon.

"Prii! Prii!" it waved its tiny little arms in the air.

Misty smiled. "Well, then. I think this one has been aprooved." She looked back at Brock. "Why don't you try on some other ones, just in case we end up liking something else better?"

"Okay..." He headed back into the dressing room he was occupying. He grinned at the saleswoman on the way. She made a funny look.

Misty once again turned her attention to the elegant kimonos.

**TLING RING**

"Waah! Calm down, Pikachu!" a very recognizable voice said from the door.

Pikachu rushed from underneath Ash's right leg into the store. It quickly made its way to Togepi, carrying a piece of a Pokéball-shaped cookie in between it's little fangs.

"Oh. Hi, Pikachu!" Misty greeted it.

"Pikachupi!" it greeted back after taking the cookie out of its mouth with its chubby little arms.

"What's that you got there with you?" she asked it as she knelt down to get a closer look at the cookie.

"Pika..." it replied. It gave it to Togepi. The food was a bit nibbled on at the edge, for Pikachu had eaten the other half.

"It's a cookie I bought for Pikachu at a bakery nearby," Ash told her as he came nearer.

"Oh," she said as she looked up at him and stood up.

"Pikachu just really wanted to share that cookie with Togepi."

"Really?" Misty asked while she slid her hands down her legs to her knees and looked down at Pikachu. "That's so nice, Pikachu! Thank you!"

"Pi..." it shyly scratched the back of its head with its paw.

She giggled and soon stood up again as Brock stepped closer to them.

"Hey, Ash! There you are!" He looked down. "And Pikachu!"

Pikachu, while chewing a piece of Togepi's part of the cookie, who had given it some back, directed its attention to him.

"Well? What about this one?" Brock asked for their opinion on his now dark blue kimono.

"That one looks good too, but I prefered the other one," Misty said.

"Humm... I haven't seen the other one, but that one looks okay..." Ash opinionated.

"Pika pichu!" Pikachu replied after swallowing his part of the cookie.

Togepi, a little less enthusiased than the last time, let out a "To prii..."

"Okay, I guess that means that between this one and the last one, I'd take the last one, right?"

"I suppose..." Misty told him. "But if you prefer this one; well, it's all up to you. We're just here to help." She smiled.

Ash looked at her as she did. He loved how she was such a sweet person and a great friend, even though she didn't always let people see this side of her. He grinned to himself as he thought about this.

"Okay." Brock returned to the dressing room, this time, blinking at the saleswoman.

Misty turned to Ash. "Do you need any help picking yours out?" she nicely asked.

"Uh... No, that's okay. I can manage," he answered as he walked over the the masculine section. As soon as he realized Pikachu started to follow him, he started turned around to face it. However, he kept on walking, now backwards. Unfortunately, before he was able to open his mouth to say anything to Pikachu, he accidently tripped on a manequin.

**STRUFF THUD**

He fell on the floor, but managed to keep the manequin from falling down.

Misty imediately turned around to check on her friend. "Are you okay?" she asked while pulling herself away from the kimonos in case he needed some help getting up.

"I'm fine! Don't worry about me!" he, a little embarrassed, told her while shaking his right arm in the air.

Misty sighed in relief, then, turned back to what she was doing previously.

Ash, still on the floor with both his knees up on the same line as his chest, fixed the cap on his head, which had slided forward and kept him from seeing clearly after the incident. As soon as he did, he looked at the manequin he just tripped on. The lifesize doll, herself, was okay, but her kimono was very beautiful. It was of a pale turquoise color with a few Pokémon details in white. Most were as elegant as it, but this one fit Misty's personality somehow. Sure, she had shown interest in the color pink before: her jacket was pink, her sleeping bag, her other kimono; but there was something about the blueshish color of this particular one that just... made sense.

_I bet Misty'll buy this one... It just... It's her..._, he thought.

"Pika..." Pikachu tried getting Ash's attention, which was completely focused on the turquoise clothes. "Pikaa!" it yelled. This time, Ash heard it and shook his head as in getting out of a deep trance. He stood up and walked over to the masculine kimono section, while Brock once again left the dressing room to ask for Misty's opinion on a new kimono.

-End Chapter 5-

**stretches** Well, as I began to write this chapter, I was still pretty sick, so sorry if it's... I don't know... Different? But I did like the name of this chapter. It's so happy IMO:D Oh, and I'd just like to say that this one was quite hard to write in the beginning, because I've had the story of this fanfic sort of plotted in my mind for a while, but I never expected them to go shopping! Yep, I took this unexpected turn in chapter 3, when Brock decided he needed new clothes...

Oh, and I added this to the third chapter:

Chapter 3 quote: "Well, Brock, if that's the problem, I can help you with that! The stores will probably open up tomorrow. I'll help you pick out your clothes!" Misty comforted him as she patted his back.

"Really?"

"Of course! It's a promise!"

"Thank you, Misty! I really need some help!" he practically cried over her arm.

"He sure does..." Ash whispered to Misty. She giggled at what Ash said and sweatdropped at what Brock had said before. (end quote)

You see, it wasn't a promise before, but now it is. **lol**

I have a question: is 'feelingless' a word:p Make that two: what about 'opinionate'? As in "Ash opinionated"?

Yay! Togepi has a quite a lot of lines for a Togepi in this chapter! **lol** I guess it's trying to make up for spending the first three chapters sleeping!

Oh, and feel free to interpret this part as you'd like:

Chapter 5 quote: "Humm... These kimonos are so beautiful..." she commented to both herself and Togepi while she admired a few. "I wonder which one Ash would like..."

"Toge?"

"Uhh... For me, of course!" She lightly blushed. (end quote)

Many hidden meanings in there, I can tell 'ya that. ;)

opens big wide smile from ear to ear More reviewers! Excited ones, if I may add! I'm so glad! I hope this chapter reaches your eager expectations! Expect the next one sometime around the weekend...

Please review!


	6. Afternoon Break

**A Pair of Two Doubles**

_Chapter 6 - "Afternoon Break"_

"How may I help you?" the waiter asked the two Pokémon trainers and the breeder as he pulled out a notepad from a pocket on his apron. He also pulled a pen from behind his ear.

"I'd like a milkshake!" Misty ordered while licking her lips.

"Prii!" Togepi squealed on the table.

"Could you please add an extra straw in it?" she asked.

"Sure thing, miss," he said while jotting down her order. He turned to Ash. "And you, gentleman? What would you like?"

"I want a super special sundae with every kind of topping you offer!"

"Pikachu!" Pikachu, who was sitting beside him on the round plastic table, added. It held a bottle of scrumptious ketchup, that it had seen lying around on the table, in between its little paws and licked some of the sauce that squirted out from the top.

"Uh... Make that two, please!"

The waiter quickly wrote everything down. "What about for the other gentleman?" he asked Brock.

"Argh... Uh..." Brock groaned while his head laid on the table.

Ash nudged him on the shoulder. "Brock! If you want anything, order it now! You're wasting precious time that could be spent on my super special sundae!"

Misty couldn't help but sweatdrop at Ash's 'encouragement'.

"Uh... I'll have... uh... nothing. Thank you," Brock told the waiter as soon as he lifted up his head. He did plop it back down right after saying so.

"Okay. That'll be a milkshake and two super special sundaes comin' right up," the waiter confirmed. "We'll be sending another waiter in a minute or two with them," he continued as he left for the counter where the chefs awaited orders.

"Uhmm! I can't wait for my sundae!" Ash exclaimed while rubbing his belly.

"Pi pikachu!" Pikachu agreed while licking more ketchup from the bottle.

Misty, who was sitting across from Ash, also joined in. "Yeah! I could really use some ice cream after walking around like that!"

"Toge!"

The three were at a snack bar they had found while looking for more stores in town. It was quite full, but not completely, since it was way past lunchtime. The snack bar had a huge variety of snacks to choose from. Ash, Misty and their Pokémon, Pikachu and Togepi, felt like having some ice cream that day.

Their day had been pretty tiring. They had walked around practically the entire town in search of Brock's clothes. It wasn't a very big town, but there were so many stores that they absolutely needed to recharge their energy with a snack.

Brock suddenly lifted his head up again, startling his friends. "It's not fair! This town has so many stores! Why was I not able to find any decent clothes to wear?" he whined.

"Brock... I know we didn't find your perfect set of clothes yet, but we will..." Misty tried to comfort him. "At least you guys bought your kimonos!" she said in a positive way.

Ash decided to answer Brock's question. "Actually, Brock, we found plenty of clothes. _You_ were the one who pointed out something you didn't like in all of them..." Ash stated.

"Ash, you don't understand!" Brock yelled. "Nurse Joy deserves the best of the best and that's what I want to give her: the best proposal to be taken to the festival ever! That includes me wearing the best clothes ever!"

"Okay, okay! I get it!" Ash tried calming his friend down by pretending to understand.

Misty decided to say something to help. "Well, if we don't find them today, we always have tomorrow. The festival will only be held tomorrow night, right? We still have time..."

"I can't ask her then, Misty! Not in the very same day! The point is that I need to invite her soon! She won't be free forever!"

"Humm... Now that you've mentioned it; do you think she's still available?" Misty asked.

Brock suddenly froze. Out of nowhere, he stood up and placed both hands on his face. "Oh, no! What if somebody else has asked her to it already?" he freaked out.

"Calm down, Brock!" Misty scolded him. She grabbed his nearest arm and pulled him back on his chair. She then smiled at him as she said, "Look, what you wear is what least matters. All you have to do is ask her with all your heart." She put one of her hands on the left side of her chest, emphasizing her point. "No matter what you wear, if the feeling comes from deep down, she'll know she should accept." Misty then stretched her arm upwards, closed her hand into a fist and pulled it back down quickly. "I know that you can do it, Brock!"

"Toge Toge!"

Brock nodded. "Thanks!" He darted out of his chair and left the snack bar in a hurry.

"Where are you going to?" Ash screamed.

"To the Pokémon Center! I'm gonna ask Nurse Joy!" Brock yelled back.

Misty suddenly stood up and shouted, "Good luck!" She waved both her arms at him. He just looked back in a grateful way and disappeared into the crowd. Togepi and Pikachu just sat on the table, enjoying the whole scene.

"Do you think she'll wanna go with Brock?" Ash asked.

Misty sighed. "I sure hope so..." She sat back down.

_I wonder how Misty knows so much about feelings and love so much,_ Ash quietly pondered. _Maybe she had a boyfriend already when she lived back in Cerulean City... _He shook his head and decided to stop thinking. His whole thought was definitely going to lead him to depression if it kept up the way it was.

Just then, a man carrying a silver tray arrived at their table.

"Here you go, kids. A milkshake with an extra straw for the Mrs.," he said while putting Misty's milkshake down on the table, "and a super special sundae with every kind of topping we offer for the Mr. Oh! And another one for the Pikachu!" He put their sundaes on it also.

Ash and Misty had both been staring at him with annoyed looks on their faces. "_What_ did you just say?" they asked in unison.

The waiter nervously asked, "What?"

"You said 'Mrs.'!" Misty angrily pointed out.

"And 'Mr'," Ash added. He wasn't as angry as she was, but he did feel quite uncomfortable when being refferred to as _Misty's_ 'Mr.'.

The man looked sorry he ever said those things, because both Ash and Misty glared at him very threateningly. "Uhh... I'm sorry..." he said as he tried hiding behing the round tray in his hand. "It was just a joke about the upcoming festival..."

"Humm..." They both suspiciously stared at him. Pikachu and Togepi giggled at the awful situation this stranger had unwillingly put himself into.

"Oh? What is that, mother?" the waiter asked out of the blue. "Of course I'm comming!" he yelled as he nervously slid back into the middle of the crowd.

"Humph!" Misty took a big gulp of her milkshake. That helped her cool off. Togepi, however, only took one small sip of it. Ash and Pikachu, on the other hand, had been nearly finished with their sundaes right after their third spoonful. Pikachu's sundae had, of course, some of the red ketchup slidding down the mounds of ice cream.

"I can't wait to get home!" Ash said in between sundae scoops being popped into his mouth.

Misty nodded. "Yeah! It'll be wonderful to return to your house after spending such a long time travelling around in Johto!"

"And I'll finally be able to sleep in my cozy little bed again!"

Misty cleared her throat. "You seem to be forgetting the deal we made earlier..."

"What deal?"

"I get to sleep on your bed, remember?" She grinned evilly. _I bet making such a big fuss about sleeping in the top bunk bed doesn't seem worth it now, huh? _she thought.

Ash sighed and looked at Pikachu, who had some ice cream around its red cheeks. "Oh, yeah... I forgot..."

"Well, I didn't!" she proudly shot back.

Ash suddenly started to brag in return. "Oh, yeah? Well, my mom won't make _you_ some of her special 'deep-dish-chili-dog'n'pizza-pot-pie'! Those are only for _me_!" He licked his lips just at the thought of his mother's delicious cooking.

"Kaa..." Pikachu reminded its trainer.

"Oh. And for Pikachu too, of course..."

Misty could only sweatdrop in this situation. _Food. Big deal._

Pikachu looked satisfied. It cleaned the ice cream off its cheeks with a napkin, for it was done having its sundae. It also closed the ketchup bottle, since there was no more ketchup inside. Ash just cleaned his mouth and cheeks with a napkin.

As soon as Misty finished slurping the milkshake she still had left in her glass, she resumed her 'bossy' mode. "You pay today, Ash."

"What? Why me?" he surprisedly asked.

Misty smiled. "Because I'm a girl and you're a boy. It's common courtesy for boys to pay the meals they share with girls for them!" she cleverly told him.

"Well, that's too bad..."

"Huh? Why?"

"I don't have any money left!" he nervously replied while shrugging.

**TUMP**

Misty had fallen off her chair because of another typical Ash thing. Pikachu had done the same, except it fell to the side, landing on the table instead.

The girl got back up and smirked, "Fine, Ash. I'll pay this time..."

Ash smiled in reply. "Thanks..."

"Toge Prii!"

In a nearby table, the clumsy trio from Team Rocket was dressed up as a couple of old people and a very wierd Sunflora.

"Okay... So dem twerps are gonna go to da festival for sure!" Meowth tried telling his comrades. Unfortunately, his costume consisted of tape stretching his face out, so his words weren't very clear.

"Yes... And we need a plan to catch all of those Pokémon..." Jessie, otherwise known as the old man, added.

Just then, a waiter walked over to their table and pleasantly greeted them. "Hello! Welcome to our snack bar! May I say you came in at a great time?"

"Why is that?" James curiously asked.

"You two are the 157th and 158th people I'll be serving today!"

"Uh... Yeah? So what?" Jessie asked, not at all amused.

"That means you get to eat today's special here for free!"

"For FREE?" all three shouted gleefully. Meowth, of course, soon realized it was a Sunflora who couldn't speak human language, so it tried covering for himself. "Uh... Sunflora!"

The waiter, however, didn't notice. "Yep! I'll go tell the chef to prepare the food!"

Jessie and James each shot one of their arms up in the air. Meowth shot up one of his green Sunflora leaves.

"I guess we can take some time off from thinking of a plan to eat a little, don't you?" James asked the other undercover Team Rocket agents.

"YEAH!" they replied. They happily waited for their food to be delivered. Needless to say, once it arrived, they had practically eaten everything before the waiter even got a chance to turn his back to them. This made him sweatdrop.

After having left the snack bar, Ash, Misty, Pikachu and Togepi decided to head back to the Pokémon Center. Ash carried two bags which contained his and Brock's kimonos. Pikachu, being the nice Pokémon it was, thought it was best not to give the brunet extra weight to carry, so it walked alongside him instead of on his shoulder. Misty, as always, held her baby Pokémon in her arms. She hadn't bought her kimono yet, because she couldn't make up her mind on which one she wanted.

"Look over there!" she suddenly said as she pointed over to where the festival would be held.

"What?" Ash asked as he looked.

"Aren't those branches they're using as decoration parts of those bamboo-like trees we came across before reaching this town?"

Ash studied the decorations. "Humm... You're right! I guess it must be some type of common plant around here..."

"Uhuh," Misty nodded. "Well, we should get going! It's gonna get dark soon! Since the festival is tomorrow, I'm gonna need my beauty sleep!" She excitedly said. She ran off afterwards.

"Waa!" Ash yelled from where he was standing. "Wait up!" he shouted as he ran after her. Pikachu happily dashed beside him.

-End Chapter 6-

Okay, I know this chapter sounded useless and pointless, but trust me: there is a meaning to it; a meaning that I'll explain better in the future chapters. :)

And sorry for taking such a long time to post this up. Internet issues. You understand... **lol**

Before I say anything, full credit of Pikachu and the ketchup thing goes to Togepi4eva (from the forums)! When I wrote the 'breakfast' chapter, she reminded me of how much Pikachu liked ketchup, so... Here it is! **lol** Thank you, Togepi!

Does anybody know if this really was the name of that food that Ash said in one of the Orange League episodes: "deep-dish-chili-dog'n'pizza-pot-pie"? I think it was said in "The Underground Round-Up"... Uhh... If that IS in fact the name of an episode... **sweatdrops**

Speaking of sweatdrops, sorry for the awful lot of 'sweatdropping' in this chapter!

Anyway, I don't have anything else to say today... Except that I've decided that this fanfic will have ten chapters. The last three will be focused on the festival. The next one is a surprise. ;) Well, not really a surprise, since it won't amaze you, but why should I tell 'ya what it'll be about if it's going to be posted soon? **lol**

Please don't forget to review! I'm counting on that! Thank you!


	7. Be Prepared

**A Pair of Two Doubles**

_Chapter 7 - "Be Prepared"_

**THUFF THUFF**

"Waa!" Ash yelled. "What's going on?" He tightly hugged his pillow as his mattress jumped up and down repeatedly. The boy also noticed Pikachu plopped around on it, but instead of looking mad, it looked like it was having fun. Unfortunately, no matter how strong the bond between them was, having to be woken up in such a harsh way was no joke to him.

"Good morning!" Misty happily popped her head up from underneath his bed.

Ash realized the mattress no longer shook uncontrolably. He sat up on his bed and thought it was too much of a coincidence for that to stop just as Misty showed up. "Hey! Why are you kicking my bed?" he asked with annoyance.

She smirked. "Oh! Sorry! I just thought it'd be fun to do that... I couldn't help myself!"

"Well, I hope you're satisfied..." he sarcatically remarked.

"More than I expected to be!" she teasingly replied. Pikachu's soft giggle could be heard now.

"Humpf..." Ash rubbed his eyes and yawned. "Where's Brock?"

"Oh, he's still sleeping," Misty said as she pointed to the bed across theirs. "I guess Nurse Joy must've accepted to go with him tonight. Look at how happy he looks!"

Brock did indeed look happy, even while sleeping. His snore wasn't as loud as usual and he had a wierd grin on his face. It was the grin he put on when he wasn't rejected, and since that didn't happen very often, his expression was considered wierd to them. Also, Brock didn't seem to even notice the racket his friends were making.

Ash suddenly realized what Misty had just said. "Tonight?" he repeated.

The girl nodded. "Yep! Tonight's the festival, remember?" She turned her back to him and stretched her arms downwards behind herself. Her left hand held her right one. "You didn't forget, did you?" she asked with a hint of sadness and disapointment in her voice. However, Misty still made an effort to sound as if she didn't care if he had forgotten or not.

Ash just scratched his head. "Uh... Of course I didn't!" he nervously replied. He didn't like to hurt the feelings of any of his friends. He especially didn't like it when he was the one who made Misty feel bad, because he knew that girls were usually more sensitive than boys, no matter how much Misty tried hiding what she truly felt sometimes.

The female trainer turned around and faced him. She didn't look depressed. Actually, she had a very satisfied look on her face. "I'm going to go buy my kimono, okay?"

"But... Uh..." he started. He knew she probably looked better than she felt, so he decided to say something nice to make up for depressing one of his best friends so early in the morning. "Do you want any help?" _Argh_, he thought. _What am I saying? Me? Offering to go shopping?_

Misty suddenly had a surprised expression resting on her face. It soon turned into her famous sarcasm look. "What are you saying? You? Offering to go shopping?" She leaped on the edge of the bottom bunk bed and stood up so that she could face Ash right in the face on the top one.

"Uh..." Ash sounded confused. He slightly backed his head as Misty's came closer to examine him.

Out of nowhere, Misty placed one of her hands on his forehead. He jumped at her touch and felt his face warm up. The girl then placed it on hers. "Humm... Now, that's wierd. You don't seem to be sick, so you can't be delirious..."

Ash fell over to the side at what the red-head had just playfully said. "Misty!"

She giggled as she jumped off the bed. "That's very nice of you to ask, Ash, but don't worry about me! I can pick it out myself!" She smiled.

"Have you decided which one you're going to buy?"

"Well, not yet, but Togepi will help me decide, won't you Togepi?" She asked as she looked down at the floor where a baby Pokémon stood.

"Toge Prii!"

"Well, I'm off!" She picked up her backpack from the night stand. "Make sure not to get into any trouble while I'm gone!" she teasingly said as she opened the door and let Togepi walk out to the hallway.

Ash snorted. "I won't..."

Misty almost closed the door behind her. Ash was about to fall back on his bed when she opened it again, stuck her head back in and pleasantly said, "Oh, and Ash... I'm sorry to have waken you up..." After saying this, she closed the door and left.

"Misty..." Ash told himself. He stared at the door for a while before falling back on the bed with a smile.

Pikachu snuggled near its trainer and fell asleep once more.

Outside on the street, Misty walked with Togepi beside her. It marched while happily chanting its own name over and over again. It's trainer loved seeing it so glad.

"Well, Togepi... I guess we're gonna have to make a choice today..." She sighed. "I wish I knew which kimono I should buy..."

"Toge?"

Misty stopped as Togepi tried comforting her. She picked it up and started walking along the sidewalk. "Thank you, Togepi... I know we'll pick the best one!"

It squealed a sweet "Prii" in return.

"Here you go!" Nurse Joy's soothing voice broke the muffled sound in the room. She placed a set of trays on the table Ash and Brock were sitting in. These trays contained the same things they had had for breakfast the day before.

"Thank you!" Ash said as he eagerly popped some of the food into his mouth. Pikachu did the same, except its gratefulness came out as a "Pika!" instead.

Brock also thanked her, but, of course, he thanked with an awful lot of style. So much style, that she just had to sweatdrop.

"Uhh... Nurse Joy? I was wondering if I could ask you something..." Ash started as soon as he swallowed whatever it was he had been chewing.

"Of course you can, Ash!" Nurse Joy promptly responded. She was a really nice person. Even though she and her Chansey had a lot of people to serve, she still took the time to talk to Ash.

"Well, when we first came here, we saw some wierd trees that looked like bamboos, but had something about them that denied the fact that they were normal bamboos. I was just wondering what they actually were..."

"Oh, why, they're in fact bamboos, Ash."

"They are?" Ash asked intriguedly.

The kind nurse nodded. "Yes, but they're different because of the weather of our town. You see, it's quite warm around this place at daytime, but at night, the weather completely changes. Everything becomes so cold!"

"Oh... We wouldn't know that, since we got here at the Center just before nightfall... Both yesterday and the day before..."

"Pika..." Pikachu nodded in agreement.

"Thank you, Nurse Joy!" Ash quickly said, realizing she still had plenty of trays to go around.

"You're welcome, Ash," she replied as she ran off with the cart down the corridor.

"Ahh..." Ash yawned while stretching. "I'm definitely stuffed!" He looked over at Pikachu, who licked its lips.

"Kaa..."

"So am I," Brock agreed.

The three of them had just finished eating their breakfast at the Pokémon Center cafeteria.

Ash eagerly turned to Brock. "So, what do you want to do today, Brock?"

"Oh... I'm sorry, Ash. But I already promised to hang around here and help Nurse Joy with some chores today..."

"Really?" Ash asked, a little disappointed that none of his human friends would be around that day. Of course, Pikachu was more than enough good company, but a human would certainly not be bad to be with. "Well, that's okay... After all, it's not everyday a Nurse Joy actually accepts going to a festival with you, right?" he said lightheartedly.

Brock started sobbing at the sound of that. "Please, Ash! Just the thought that Nurse Joy will join me to it brings tears to my eyes!" he said as his clenched fists drew near his face.

Ash chuckled.

"Why don't you go find Misty and hang out with her?" the oldest boy suggested.

"Nah, she's shopping for her kimono today... I think I've done enough shopping yesterday already..." Ash rapidly stated. He didn't want to spend another day after clothes.

He stood up and Pikachu climbed on his shoulder. "Okay, then. See you around, Brock!" Ash waved to Brock while leaving the cafeteria.

"Bye," Brock replied. As soon as Ash left the room, Brock stood up and tied his pink apron, which he apparently pulled out of thin air, around him. "Alright, Nurse Joy!" he said to himself, "Brock the rock is finally ready to help!" He swiftly started gathering the used plates, glasses and trays from the tables around the cafeteria and took them to the kitchen to be washed. He was also able to serve food to some people, mop floors and dust a few things. Brock was very efficient when it came to these kinds of things.

**SWISH**

A few minutes after eating, Ash stepped out of the Pokémon Center. "Well, I guess now we can go do some sight-seeing, Pikachu..."

"Pika!" Pikachu squealed with glee.

Ash started walking around the small yet populated town. He realized he had already seen practically everything with his friends the day before, so there wasn't much to do then.

"Argh..." he mumbled to his yellow buddy while dragging his hands. He was getting pretty bored. "Do you think it's really possible that the _only_ thing that we can do around here is shop, Pikachu?"

"Chuu..." it squeaked.

Its trainer sighed. He stopped and put his hands on his waist. "Well, what now?"

"Pika..." it began with uncertainty. Pikachu then joyfully squealed to Ash, "Pikachupi!"

_Pikachupi..._ _Oh, I remember now..._ Ash thought. "Misty?"

Pikachu nodded. "Pi Pikachu!" it replied.

Ash remembered what Brock had told him before; to look for Misty. "Hum... I guess," Ash said to himself, "she might have finished picking out her kimono already..."

Pikachu jumped off his should and signaled for its trainer to follow it. Ash knew Pikachu was leading him to the kimono store.

Once he reached it, he decided to enter the establishment and look for Misty inside, even though he did risk having the saleswoman sighting him and telling him to try on other kimonos. He really disliked being forced to do things, like many other people.

**TOPPOW**

"Huh?" Misty wondered once she opened the store door. "What was that sound, Togepi?" she asked her Pokémon while looking around.

"Pikapi!" Pikachu cried. Once Misty spotted it, she realized Ash must've been around.

"Oh, hey, Pikachu! Where's Ash?"

"Argh..." a familiar voice groaned from behind the wooden door. As soon as Misty heard it, her eyes followed the noise and landed upon a flat-faced Ash who was lying on the floor.

"Ash?" she exclaimed while closing the door. "I'm sorry..." she sweatdropped as she apologized for smashing a door into him. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah... I'm... okay..." he replied, still dizzy over what had just happened. He accepted the hand she held out to help him up and joked, "I guess my 'thick skull' has some use, doesn't it?"

Misty nervously giggled at this. She didn't know why, but she felt sort of embarrassed when hitting him with a wooden door and then having him still treating her nicely, even using one of her most common teasing phrases.

Ash's dizzyness gradually faded as he, Misty, Pikachu and Togepi walked along the sidewalk of the street they were on. A shopping bag dangled from Misty hand.

"Ya' know," he started, "Nurse Joy was just telling me that those trees really are bamboos..."

"Really? They look so different," Misty said.

Ash nodded. "Yep. They look like that because of the weather here. She told me that usually, even though at daytime the weather here is nice and sunny, at night, it gets really cold."

"Cold?" Misty looked worried.

"What's the matter?" Ash asked, confused.

She looked at him. "Well, if it gets too cold, how are we supposed to have any fun at the festival tonight?"

Ash sighed in understandment. He soon came up with the perfect answer to cheer Misty up. "Don't worry! This isn't the first time this town is throwing this festival! And look at how many people came! I'm sure we'll be able to enjoy it a lot, you'll see!"

She smiled in content. "I hope so..."

"And," he continued, "if it does turn out to be too cold, just remember that I'm gonna be right there beside you, shivering just as much as you!" He laughed a bit at this.

Misty giggled. "You're right!" She then skipped ahead of him and stopped right in front of her friend, drawing the attention and curiosity of both Pokémon who had been following them to her, aswell as Ash's.

"Here!" She smirked as she held out a shopping bag to him. It contained her newly bought kimono.

"What?" he asked, not really sure of what to do next.

"You need to carry my bag for me! I'm a lady here, remember?" she reminded her friend as she leaned towards him with a wide grin on her face.

"Uh... Since when?" he once again questioned Misty. But no matter how innocent Ash was, he never realized he shouldn't say something until after he had already said it.

Misty growled at that remark and backed away. "I'm gonna pretend I didn't hear that!" she yelled as she grabbed his left arm, yanked it over to her and slid the handles of the bag she carried on his hand. She then turned around and stomped ahead. "Come on, Togepi..." she called out for her Pokémon to follow her.

"Uh... What did I do?" Ash, who still held the bag in the same position the girl had left it in, asked dumbfounded while staring at the mad Misty walking away. As soon as Pikachu jumped on his shoulder, Ash looked at it and asked, "Do you think I'll be able to make it through the entire festival?" They both sweatdropped.

-End Chapter 7-

Hello:) Did you like this chapter? I hope so!

I'm SO sorry for taking so long to finish this chapter, but here's the deal: the next chapters might take a while to be written too, since this trimester's quizzes are coming up at my school... Sorry... Good news is I did really well on my phisics quiz and my biology one, so YAY! That means I won't have to be SO worried about the test (which is worth about 5 times more than a quiz, but it's always great to get a good grade on something! **lol**). **celebrates** Oh! And I only missed one teeny-tiny question on my German quiz... **lol**


	8. The Excitement of Going to a Festival

**A Pair of Two Doubles**

_Chapter 8 - "The Excitement of Going to a Festival"_

"I should get going now, so you stay here and don't give Pikachu and the other Pokémon a hard time, okay?" Misty kindly said as she gave her Togepi a tight hug. "And the same goes for you, Psyduck," she added while glaring at her clumsy duck-like Pokémon, who just cluelessly repeated its own name in response. It leaned its head from its right side to its left, holding it with its small yellow wings during the entire process.

"Psy?"

Misty sighed. "Please help take care of Psyduck too, Togepi..." she whispered to her baby Pokémon while kneeling down. It just chirped back.

The girl put Togepi down beside Pikachu and gave a step back so that she could see all of the Pokémon before her. They all acted as if they were excited, probably because they would have some time to spend together outside of their Pokéballs. All of them belonged to either her, Ash or Brock. The only ones who weren't present were Bayleef, Tododile and Crobat, because they were already at the entrance of the festival waiting for her with her two friends and Nurse Joy. Other Pokémon who belonged to other trainers were also at the Pokémon Center, but most of them were kept inside of their Pokéballs. The ones who were loose were either running around in the cafeteria or were outside keeping Brock's Onix company, since it couldn't fit inside the building. They all would be watched by an Officer Jenny, who had come from another town just to run this task. At that moment, the policewoman was at the cafeteria.

Misty twirled around once in front of all the thirteen Pokémon who she knew well in the kimono she had bought that very day. "So? What do you think?" she asked them, referring as to how she looked. They all cheered and she smiled with glee at this.

**SWISH**

"Bye! Take care!" She had turned around and was now headed for the place where the event would occur. Realizing that she would be late if she didn't hurry up, she waved back at the Pokémon who stood behind the Pokémon Center glass doors, and, in Onix's case, the Pokémon who stood in the yard, and she started sprinting down the street. Her hair, which she now had left loose, started bouncing up and down around her. It was kind of wierd to her, since she usually kept it in a ponytail on the left side of her head.

_It's so hard to run in a kimono_, Misty thought to herself as she nearly tripped on her own foot.

She started to pick up her pace down the small streets of the town until she reached the place where the festival would be held. Of course, since the gates hadn't been opened yet, the place was quite crowded, making it hard for her to see Ash and the others. She had to make her way through the people, pushing a few aside and squishing herself in between two or three. She was also pushed and pulled while doing this.

She finally got a glimpse of what looked to be like her friends, who stood by a small bench. The bench was being occupied by Tododile, Brock and Nurse Joy. Chansey, who was probably the Pokémon that Joy decided to take, stood in front of Tododile, and both giggled every now and then as the water Pokémon danced around in its place. Misty could see that Ash, whose back faced her, was standing up, patting Bayleef on the head, who gladly dug its head in his leg in return. Crobat was flying over the six of them. The girl ran towards them.

Misty startled her friends once she reached them. She had arrived with a loud puff that made Ash suddenly turn around to see what it was. She bent over so that she could support her hands on her knees and catch some air. Although Misty panted lightly, it was easily visible that she needed to rest for a moment. Ash, Brock and Nurse Joy curiously looked over at the girl who had just arrived. So did the four Pokémon.

**PLING PLANG PLONG PLUNG**

The water Pokemon trainer grined as she heard the ringing sound of bells. "Right on time," she happily announced as she stood upright once again. She had a mischeavous smile as she lifted her left hand up, revealing both her index finger and her middle one in a "V" shape. Ash, Brock and Nurse Joy all sweatdropped at how happy she was over such a meaningless thing. Misty also had a few strings of her short, red hair wildly dancing around her face, adding yet another feature to her childish look.

She suddenly took a deep breath and leaned over the first thing in front of her, who just happened Ash.

"Are you okay?" he kindly asked, not really knowing what to do with the fact that Misty's head now rested on his shoulder.

"Wait a second... Ash... Let me... Catch my breath a bit..."

Suddenly, a familiar voice was heard through the speakers that surounded the area. "Everybody! May I please have your attention!"

"Hey! It's... It's... Officer Jenny!" Brock excitedly shouted as he stood up. Nurse Joy just cluelessly looked at him and thought of something to say. "Uh... Yes, it is Officer Jenny. But this one is the one who runs the small police station in this town, whereas the one in the Pokémon Center isn't..."

"Humpf!" Misty, without either lifting her head up or opening her eyes, subtlely kicked Brock in the ankle. "Brock..." she said with clenched teeth.

"Ow!" Luckily, after practically falling over his partner, he got her message.

"The 'Anual Pokémon Pair Up Festival' is about to begin!" The crowd cheered when they heard this. "We are now opening the gates! Please wait in line with your date..."

"D-date?" Ash and Misty, both with wide eyes, freaked out at the same time. As Misty yelled this, she jolted her head up from the boy's shoulder and took a few steps away from him. Ash also made sure to keep his distance, so that he wasn't mistaken for Misty's boyfriend. Both blushed and looked away from each other.

"...and have your Pokémon with you!" Officer Jenny continued.

A huge roar from the crowd could be heard as everbody ran to take their places in line.

"Well, then! Let's go!" Brock cheerfully commanded. He held out his left elbow so that Nurse Joy could slide her arm through his and had Crobat accommodate on his right shoulder.

Nurse Joy smiled at his generosity and looked back. "Come along, Chansey," she told her Pokémon as she and Brock disappeared in the middle of the crowd.

"Chansey!" Chansey squealed. It happily raised its short arms in an excited way and followed the nurse.

Misty realized that she and her partner should probably follow them aswell. "Hey! Wait up for us!" she yelled as she grabbed Ash by his nearest arm and picked up the excited Tododile from the bench. She definately wasn't nearly as gentle with Ash as Brock was with Nurse Joy. "Let's go, Bayleef!" she told the grass type Pokémon. She pulled Ash through the crowd Brock, Nurse Joy, Chansey and Crobat had just stuck themselves in. Bayleef obeyed her, so it also vanished as it entered the huge jumble people.

Inside, they felt completely lost. There were so many people, and the hassle was tremendous.

"Oh, no... We've lost them..." Misty sounded concerned. "What do we do now?"

"Hey, I know!" Ash excitedly yelled. He turned to his Pokémon. "Bayleef, use your Vine Whip to hold on to Chansey so that we won't be parted from one another!"

"Bay bay!" Bayleef gladly accepted its trainer's order. It immediately shot the green vine that rested on the right side of its neck out into the crowd and after Chansey's small tail, which was the only part of it that was still visible to them. "Bay!" The vine soon slid around Chansey's body and got a firm grip of it.

Ash praised his Pokémon. "Great job, Bayleef! Now, do the same thing to us with your other vine!"

"Bay!"

Another green vine shot out from Bayleef's neck, but this time, from the left side. This vine stood in the air, right in front of Ash. He grabbed it and felt it tighten around his wrist. Ash caught Misty's hand and started following Bayleef's lead to the other side.

"Argh... Look at the size of this line!" Brock exclaimed as soon as he and Nurse Joy had come out of the middle of the crowd.

"Wow! It's... Pretty big, isn't it?" The surprised nurse asked with one of her hands over her cheek, in a fascinated fashion.

"It sure is! Come on, Nurse Joy! We have to go get a place in line! And fast!"

"Uh... Okay!" Nurse Joy agreed while being pulled by Brock out to the end of the line, which extended to about three blocks away. Behind her, the pink Pokémon followed, with a green vine tied around its round body. As Chansey came out of the cluster of people, the vine still led into it, revealing Bayleef. At the end of Bayleef's other vine were Ash and Misty. Misty, with the help of her arm, held Tododile.

She stopped to release it onto the floor. "There you go, Tododile!" Misty told the Pokémon, who had been squirming in her arms ever since she picked it up. "I'm sorry, but we don't want to lose you," she apologized.

"Todo todo tododile!" it chanted while prancing around. It wasn't mad at her, but it was such an energetic Pokémon that it couldn't help but want to dance when it saw all of those people and movement around it.

The three trainers, their Pokémon and the nurse soon met up at the end of the line, and it felt like the queue went on forever. Ash, Misty and Brock sighed, as Nurse Joy, who was used to the festival's usual line, giggled. The Pokémon, however, didn't seem to mind the size of the queue, for they kept on playing with each other.

From behind a tree that was nearby, Jessie watched them. She growled.

"Why did those twerps have to get in line _now_? That's gonna make us have to wait until there's a reasonable amount of people behind them until we can line up!"

"Oh, look, Jessie," James cheerfully said. "There are so many people wanting to enter the place that the line will grow faster than you can count how many times Meowth has prooven itself useful in our team!"

"Hey! Ya'd better watch what ya' big mouth blurts out in fronta me, Jimmy boy!" Meowth yelled.

James chose to ignore it. Instead, he pointed to the long line of people that stood before the opened gates. "Look! We can definately line up now! See how many people are already standing behind them?"

Jessie gave her evil laugh. "Yes, I see! Let's go, team!" she encouraged them as she came out from behind the tree. "It's now time for us to let 'love' know what Team Rocket is all about!" She signaled for both James and Meowth to follow.

"Come on out, Wobbuffet!" she demanded her blue Pokémon. Unfortunately for her, Wobbuffet had already let itself out all on its own a long before.

"Woh buffet!" It jumped up behind her.

"Wobbuffet!" The female member of Team Rocket yelled. "What are you doing? Grr! You have to come out of your Pokéball only when I tell you to!" She suddenly stopped yelling to take a deep breath. "Never mind..." she grumbled. Jessie turned around to face the direction of the line. "Let's get ourselves in that line!" she ordered as she crossed the two blocks in between the line and them.

"Yippee!" James cheered as he followed his human team mate over to the end of the queue. Meowth clung on to his head and Wobbuffet wobbled behind.

"Wob wob!"

"Yay! Look! Only a few more people to go!" Misty anxiously announced as the line moved closer and closer to the gate. She kept her fists near her face, swinging them and her head from side to side, always in the opposite direction from each other.

"Yeah! I can almost _taste_ the food from here!" Ash added while sniffing the air with a dreamy face. Misty suddenly stopped acting so excited to stare at her friend. She frowned.

"Ash!" she yelled. "How can you think of food at a time like this?"

"I guess," he nervously replied, with his palms in front of him, protecting himself from another one of his friend's sudden wraths, "it's because I didn't have anything to eat ever since we returned from the store today!"

The girl sighed.

"Get off! I was here first!"

"Huh? What was that?" Ash curiously asked when they all heard what seemed to be people fighting.

"It sounded like it came from the end of the line," Brock said.

Misty confirmed Brock's theory. "It sure is! Look over there!" she exclaimed while pointing at an older girl who grabbed another girl by her pigtails.

"Grr! Now, either you get out of my way or I'll have my Wobbuffet use it's furious Counter attack against you!" the girl yelled. She had pretty burgandy hair, which was up in a bun above her head. She also wore an orange kimono with little purple hearts as details.

"Jess, will ya' calm down? We're gonna get kicked off da line if ya' keep dis up!" a cat-like Pokémon whispered into her ear.

"That's right! Now stop it!" an older boy with short blueish-purple hair tried restraining her. Unfortunately for him, it was useless. The girl was apparently very strong, and appeared to gain strength as her anger grew.

Nurse Joy was shocked when she saw what was happening. "Oh, my! Now, why would people fight like that? Especially at a time like this?"

"Beats me," Brock answered as he stared at the scene.

"Gah! It's dem twerps! And dey're looking directly at us! Stop! Or else dey'll recognize us, Jessie!"

Jessie looked up and her eyes met theirs. Without thinking twice, the expression of her face completely changed. She suddenly started laughing out loud and yelled, while patting the back of the girl she had been fighting with over the place in line, "Of course you may keep this place! I don't mind at all!" She placed her right hand before her mouth as if to cover her wide laughter. Subtlely, Jessie slid behind the girl, disappearing from Ash's and his friends' sights.

"I don't know about you," Misty started as she placed her hands on her waist, "but those people looked familiar to me..."

"Yeah," Ash agreed.

"Next!" a voice shouted. It was the voice of a male officer, ordering the next couple to present themselves and their Pokémon so that they could be eligible to participate in the festival.

"Yes! This is it, guys!" Brock gleefully told his friends. "Will you please join me in this special occasion, Nurse Joy?" he invited the kind nurse.

"Of course!" she smiled as she accepted. "Let's go, Chansey!"

Brock, Nurse Joy, Chansey and Crobat were now approaching the entrance gates.

"We'll meet ya' inside, okay?" Ash called out behind them. He never heard an answer, probably because Brock was too busy drooling over Nurse Joy.

"Hum..." Misty placed her right index finger on her chin. "That's funny..."

"Uh... What is?" Ash asked, intrigued.

"Well, didn't Nurse Joy say that the climate at night was supposed to be cold around here?"

Ash was suddenly confused. "Uh... Climb what at night?"

His friend couldn't help but slap her face with her own hand at his stupidity. "No, Ash! I said 'climate'! As in 'weather'!"

"O-oh!" Ash nervously pretended to understand. "Of course!" He laughed a bit, trying to cover for himself. He placed both his fists on his hips so that he looked like a wise person. "Yeah, so?"

Misty crossed her arms. "Well, look at the sky, Ash. Doesn't it seem like nighttime to you?" She turned around and glared at him from the corner of her eye. "Ya' know, considering the sky is dark and all..."

"Oh, yeah..." Ash started chuckling once again. "Well, it's probably just a little change in the 'climb rate', that's all!"

"Argh... Never mind..." Misty smirked after sighing.

"Next!"

"Hey! Look! It's us, Misty!" Ash exclaimed. He had found the perfect excuse for ending the subject. The boy quickly wrapped his hand around Misty's and dragged her in the direction of the voice. "Tododile! Bayleef! Hurry up!"

They all ended up in front of another male officer. "Let's see..." he began. "Names of the two people who form the couple?"

Ash and Misty both started to laugh nervously. The Cerulean City Gym Leader spoke first.

"U-uh..." she uttered as her smile became wider and wider as she realized she didn't really know what to say. She suddenly wrapped her arm around her friend's head, and, with her free hand, the girl started to mess his hair up, making him feel completely confused. "We're not a couple! We're just friends! Ya' see?" Sweat was now practically pouring down Misty's face as she said this.

"Hum..." The officer gave them a wierd look. "I'm sorry, but _only_ couples are allowed to enter. If you'd like to participate in the festival, I'm going to need proof. So either I see a kiss between the two of you, or..."

"A _kiss_!" The trainers were shocked. In such a state, Misty had no strength to hold on to Ash any longer.

"That's right!"

_Argh_, they both thought at the same time. _What do I do now?_

_I can't kiss him! But, if I don't... We might not be able to enter... And I know how much Ash wants to see all of those Pokémon..._

Ash's mind, contrary to Misty's, was completely blank. He nudged his friend with his elbow, causing her to temporarily turn her attention to him. "Way to go, Misty..." Ash mumbled under his breath.

The officer, after noticing that the two people who stood before him acted too uncomfortable with the whole idea, decided to give them a break. "Uh... I was only kidding!"

Misty's dumbfounded face suddenly turned into a furious one. "What!" she yelled at the man. "You mean this was all a joke!" The water Pokémon trainer nearly caught the officer by the collar. She was extremely angry. "How can you actually play with a person's feeling like this!"

Ash decided to end this soon, because since Misty was angry, somebody could end up hurt very badly. He was a witness. But he also really wanted to be headed for the festival.

"Uh... Misty! Calm down a little!" he told the girl. He pulled her by her arm towards him and whispered, "Come on, let's just get over with this so we can enter!"

Misty's expression slowly changed after she heard what Ash had to say. "Fine..." she grumbled, still glaring threatningly at the officer. He, in return, looked scared of the girl.

"Is there anything else that you'd like to know?" Ash asked the man as he turned his attention to him.

"L-let's see... Which Pokémon will you two be t-taking and what are their genders?"

"I'm taking this female Bayleef, sir," he began while pointing at the grass-type Pokémon who stood beside him, "and Misty's taking this male Tododile!" Ash hurridly picked Tododile from the floor.

"O-okay! You may e-enter," the man announced as he let the two walk past the entrance gates.

Inside, both of them looked fascinated at the place. People and Pokémon walked around joyfully as the smell of delicious snacks filled the air. Misty no longer cared about what that officer had put her and Ash through, for she was extremely glad to be there.

Ash and Misty looked at each other from the corner of their eyes. "We're here!" they both celebrated as the two Pokémon who accompanied them danced around with glee.

-End Chapter 8-

Another chapter... Long chapter... Sorry about that... **lol** Well, you're probably tired of reading so I'm just gonna wrap it up... :D Please review! Thank you! ;)


	9. Festive Moments

A Pair of Two Doubles

_Chapter 9_ - _"Festive Moments"_

"Come on! We just _gotta_ have some of those sweets!" Ash excitedly said as he was about to dart off towards the scented snacks he smelled. "Let's go, you g-Waa!" He let out a cry as he had been suddenly tugged back by his friend.

"What? Are you kidding?" Misty began. "We finally get to this wonderful festival and the first thing you want to see here is the food stand?"

"Uh... H-hey!" Ash was struck by an idea that could help him convince Misty not to make his hunger turn into such a huge argument. "I'm not the only one hungry here, 'ya know! Tododile and Bayleef are too!" He faithfully pointed to his Pokémon who now stood behind him.

"Huh?" Misty took a step to the side so that she could see the Pokémon. "Oh, I see..." the girl said with a clever grin. "So that's why they're dancing and sniffing around…"

"What?" Ash looked over his shoulder. "Waa! Hey, you guys!" he yelled as he turned around and frantically jumped up and down. "You're supposed to be helping me here!"

Unfortunately, neither Pokémon cared much for what their trainer told them. Bayleef just kept on sniffing some of the flowers on the ground and Tododile danced around some more.

Misty crossed her arms. "Well, that settles it! Let's go this way," she told him as she faced herself to another path. Ash didn't really care which path she faced to, because as long as it wasn't the one that lead to the food court, he wasn't happy.

"Hey! Who says _you_ get to decide where we go to?"

"I say so!"

"Well, I'm not going!"

"Yes, you are!"

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

Ash and Misty were now growling at each other. They stood so near one another that they could easily land a fist on each other's faces so quickly that the other wouldn't be able to dodge it.

"Stop it!" they heard a familiar voice say as each felt a hand settle on their shoulders and part them. However, that didn't keep them from glaring at each other. "Now come on, you guys! Nurse Joy and I won't be able to stay all night babysitting the two of you, so you'd better learn how to cool yourselves off!"

"Grr... I can't help it, Brock! She's too bossy!"

"Me, bossy? Well, at least I'm smart enough to know how to enjoy something without having to stuff food down my throat every five minutes!"

"Oh, yeah?"

"Yeah!"

Both growled once more. Brock could only stand there, sweatdropping at the scene.

"Hey, Brock! Look over there!" Nurse Joy cheerfully told him as she approached the three. She pointed to a game stand. Apparently, if you won, you'd get a Pokémon plushie.

Brock followed the direction of her finger with his eyes. He suddenly started acting goofy again. "W-would you like m-me to get o-one for you, Nurse Joy?"

Nurse Joy, in response, just smiled timidly. "It's up to you, really…"

"Well, then there's no doubt about it!" Brock exclaimed. "Let's go!" He grabbed her by her hand and ran over to said stand as Crobat and Chansey followed. However, he seemed to have forgotten all about his two other friends.

"You can stay here if you want, but I'm gonna go get something to eat," Ash suddenly told Misty, breaking away their attention from Brock and Nurse Joy. With that, he turned his back to her and started walking over to the food court. He made sure to hold his head up high the whole time. But, once again, somebody tugged the back of his light green kimono. It was Misty, of course. This tug, however, felt lighter than the other tug she had given him.

"What now?" he yelled with a frown on his face as he looked back at her over his shoulder.

"Fine, I'll go with you!" Misty shouted back. "But just because we have to stay toge…" All of a sudden, the girl realized what she was about to say. She sighed, as in trying to calm down. "Because we have to stay together…" she continued, but with a very soft voice. Her head drooped down and her fiery red hair gently slid from her shoulders, covering a portion of her face. Ash couldn't help but notice that her cheeks had gained a very light shade of red and that her fist clutched tighter and tighter at his clothing.

"Uh…" He wasn't really sure of what to say, so he just stood there, staring at his friend.

Misty looked up and frowned. "What?" she started yelling again.

"Uh… Nothing…" Ash's mind had been blank, but he soon thought of something to retort. "I just never thought you'd give in so quickly!"

Misty's first reaction was of surprise, but she soon decided to ignore Ash. Again.

"Humpf!" The trainer from Cerulean City just let go off her friend's kimono and started walking over to the food court. "Well, come on, then! Don't you wanna go there?" she remarked as she walked past him.

"Alright! C'mon you guys!" Ash called his Pokémon and signaled for them to follow him as he followed Misty.

"Grr…" Jessie growled. She impatiently tapped her left foot on the ground and crossed her arms tightly before her. "What's your point, officer?"

"My point," replied an Officer Jenny, who had gone to the place where Jessie and James stood in line, "is that we don't want any trouble makers here. You have proven to be one by pulling that innocent girl's hair." The officer pointed to said girl and Jessie turned her attention to her. The girl, who still covered her head with her hands to soothe the pain, stuck her tongue out at the female Team Rocket agent. She then entered the festival grounds. This, obviously, made Jessie furious.

"So, in other words," Officer Jenny continued, "neither you nor your partner are going to participate."

"What?" cried out James. "But I didn't even do anything! This was all her doing!" He pointed at Jessie. "Why am I not allowed to join either?"

"Because if you are paired up with her, you might end up acting just like her."

"But," James protested, "that's not true!" He stood closer to the policewoman and grabbed her by the shoulders. "I wanna go in! I didn't do anything!" he whined.

"Sorry," she replied while pushing aside his hands from her shoulders. "But rules are rules. I've got to lay them down, and you've got to obey them." She turned her back to them. "Alright, unit! They're the last ones! Let's close the gates now!" Officer Jenny walked into the place where the festival would be held and heard the entrance gates closing.

"Grr! The nerve of that woman!" Jessie screamed.

"You!" James yelled. "I knew it! You're the reason our team fails all the time!" He turned to Jessie.

"What are you talking about!" she shouted back. "Me!"

"Of course! If it weren't for you causing trouble, we would've been able to enter!"

"Causing trouble! Oh, please!" Jessie yelled some more. "That woman was obviously jealous of my beauty!"

"Calm down, yooz two!" Meowth's voice cut in. It jumped up and landed each foot on each of its other teammates' shoulders. "Neva mind the fact we neva got in! Look!" Meowth's sharp nail lead their eyes to look around them. The entire place was empty.

"Everybody is in that festival!" Meowth pointed out.

"So what?" James asked.

"Don't ya see? I bet we can find tons of stuff for us to swipe out heya!"

"No way!" Jessie protested. "This town is so small that all the food and Pokémon are located in the festival grounds at the moment. There's nothing that valuable that we can steal from here!"

"Wob!" Wobbuffet agreed.

James sighed. "Fine. I don't really care what we do, as long as we can provide something valuable to the Boss…"

"Well, I say we crash into that party and ruin everybody's fun! Except for our own, of course!" Jessie evilly giggled.

James joined in by evilly laughing. "Alright, I guess that settles it, then! Let's go!"

"Hold on! There are guards everywhere! They're all standing around the fences!" Jessie reminded him. "How are we getting in?"

"Well," Meowth wisely began, "luckily, I came prepared for this…" It pulled out a fancy remote control out of thin air. The control was filled with different kinds of buttons.

"Allow me to demonstrate our new and improved Team Rocket balloon!" Meowth said while pressing a big red button on the control.

**PIP**

**KWRAA**

The ground started trembling a bit, and before them, Team Rocket saw a cute little red house reveal a Meowth-shaped balloon.

Jessie and James smiled.

"I knew you couldn't be that useless, Meowth!" Jessie remarked as she ran towards the balloon.

"Wobbuffet! Wobbuffet!" Wobbuffet wobbled behind her.

"Uh… Meowth? Why is this the 'new and improved' Team Rocket balloon?" James asked. "It looks the same to me…"

"Well, Jimmy boy. 'Ya see this control I hold? Whatcha think all of these buttons do?"

"Ooh!" James giggled gleefully. "You mean they're for evil things? Like launching nets at people and grabbing Pokémon?"

"Nope. They change the channels on our new built-in T.V. set!"

James sweatdropped as he and Meowth ran to join Jessie and Wobbuffet in the balloon.

"Hey, Misty!" Ash surprised Misty from behind. He had a rice ball in his hand and a small cardboard box in the other.

Misty had been waiting for her friend to buy himself a snack. The line was quite long and there were many Pokémon in the snack stand, so both Ash and Misty thought it'd be better for her to wait with Bayleef and Tododile near an occupied bench. That way, they wouldn't get parted from each other.

"That took a while now, didn't it?" she asked Ash.

"Sure did! But it was really worth the wait! This is delicious!" he tried saying with his mouth full.

Misty giggled. "I can see that…"

"They put all kinds of stuff here! Even carrots and peppers and tomatoes!" Ash happily remarked. "I made sure they put everything in these rice balls!"

This made Misty suddenly realize he had been holding a box with more rice balls. She could never let this opportunity pass her by. "More rice balls, Ash?" Misty grinned. "Are you trying to help yourself or the entire town to a snack?"

Ash swallowed the rest of his rice ball. He frowned. "Well, for your information," he started while bending over to his Pokémon, "this is for Tododile," he said as he gave Tododile a rice ball. "And this one is for Bayleef!"

"Todo!" Tododile stuffed its rice ball in its mouth.

"Bay bay!" Bayleef rejoiced as Ash placed its rice ball in its mouth.

"Ah! Is it me or are you progressing in your 'food sharing' skills?" She giggled.

Ash said nothing. All he did was walk over to a nearby trashcan to throw the box away. He returned with another rice ball, which he held out to his friend.

"Here 'ya go," he said coldly.

Misty just stared at it. "Uh… Thanks," she said as she accepted it. Hers was wrapped in a napkin. She gently opened it and felt a warm feeling grow upon her when she took a look at her rice ball.

"Ash…" she whispered to herself. Misty smiled.

Despite saying all the rice balls had everything, Ash had made sure that one rice ball didn't contain neither carrots nor peppers, for Misty had told him once before that she hated them, along with bugs. But it had been so long ago that Misty was stunned at how could've Ash remembered it.

Misty happily took a bite out of her rice ball and ran up to join Ash, who was already walking away to check out the rest festival.

"Thank you…" she softly said.

Ash smiled to her in return.

**POP-POOM**

"What was that?" Ash asked as a loud sound was heard and bright lights were seen.

"Look over there!" somebody from the crowd shouted. "Up there, see!"

Both Ash and Misty directed their eyes towards the huge Meowth-shapped balloon in the sky. Bayleef and Tododile did the same.

"It's Team Rocket!" Ash shouted.

"Oh, no! Not them again!" Misty complained after crumbling up her napkin.

-End Chapter 9-

I'm almost finishing! I'm almost finishing! **happily claps** Only one more chapter to go!

Okay, whoever read this part:

Chapter 9 quote: "They put all kinds of stuff here! Even carrots and peppers and tomatoes!" Ash happily remarked. "I made sure they put everything in these rice balls!" (end quote)

probably felt a little foreshadowing going their way, right:p Remember "Ash Catches a Pokémon":)

Okay, so, yeah… I have nothing to say today… Except that I know that this chapter wasn't very full of excitement, but please review anyway:D Thanks!

Toodles!


	10. Usual Finale

A Pair of Two Doubles

_Chapter 10 _ - _"Usual Finale"_

Heavy, loud laughs were heard from two people who stood in a balloon in the sky. Ash and his friends knew them very well.

"Prepare for a lovable trouble!" Jessie began reciting Team Rocket's well-known motto.

"Aren't we a huggable double?" James added as he hugged Jessie. As always, every verse featured a new pose by whoever told it.

"To protect the world from l-o-v-e!"

"Have you heard we got a new T.V.?"

"To denounce the evils of a deep, warm feeling!"

"To extend our reach to hearts that are joyfully beating!"

"Jessie!"

"James!"

"Team Rocket, stealing from couples at the speed of light!"

"Surrender now or get ready to face our loving might!"

Jessie and James eagerly awaited for their cat-like Pokémon teammate to finish the motto. But it never said anything. And neither did Wobbuffet, who sometimes finished it instead of Meowth.

"Meowth! Where are you?" Jessie asked Meowth angrily. She turned around to look for it and found it watching the little built-in T.V. Wobbuffet seemed to be watching it too.

"Meowth! It's your turn!"

"Uh-uh… Meowth! That's right!" Meowth cried out, but soon sat back in front of the television set.

"You lazy, good-for-nothing-Pokémon…" Jessie mumbled under her breath.

"I knew this day was too good to be true! I should've expected you!" Ash shouted.

"What do you want now, you crooks!" Misty yelled at them.

"What do you think we want? We're here to permanently borrow all of your Pokémon!" Jessie smirked. "Go, Wobbuffet!" she yelled as she kicked her Pokémon off the balloon.

"Wobbuffet!" it screamed as it landed on the ground with a great impact. Wobbuffet got back up and placed one of its arms on its blue head. "Buffet!"

"You can go too, Arbok!"

**SWANT!**

Jessie threw the Pokéball that contained Arbok towards the ground. Unfortunately, Arbok was released before reaching the floor, making it hit it with a thud and feeling kind of dizzy. However, it soon stood up and hissed a threatnening "Sssarbok!" at the people.

"Go, Weezing!" James called out after Jessie. He tossed his Pokéball to the ground.

**SWANT!**

"Weezing wee!" Weezing cried.

"Come on, who wants to battle first?" Jessie asked the people down at the festival.

"What? Is that all you're gonna use?" Ash asked.

"What do you mean by 'all', twerp? Our Pokémon just happen to be top-notch and can beat any of yours any day! C'mon, now! Where's Pikachu so we can show you?"

"Pikachu's not here right now!"

"Oh, well that's too bad!" Jessie grinned. "C'mon, James! Let's finish this before it even begins!"

Once again, nothing was heard but silence.

"James?" she asked. She looked over her shoulder just to end up finding him watching T.V. too, just as intrigued as Meowth was.

"What do you two think you're doing?" Jessie questioned them with annoyance.

"Shuu!" James told her. He placed his index finger on his lips in a "be quiet" fashion. "Look! It's us! We're on T.V.!"

"Huh?" This definitely caught Jessie's attention. "We're on T.V.?" She excitedly repeated. She took a look at the television set and, sure enough, there was their balloon floating above the festival. "Wow! I look just as beautiful onscreen as I do off screen!"

James and Meowth sweatdropped at her vain comment.

"Hey!" yelled another voice from down below. "I thought I told you to stay out!" Officer Jenny shouted. She had just arrived with a few more policemen and was now standing beside Ash. "And each couple is allowed to bring only two Pokémon to the festival, yet you've got three down here and I'm pretty sure I can see a Meowth up there with you!"

"Officer Jenny!" Brock cried out from the middle of the crowd. "Argh! Two beautiful women are here before my very eyes!" He ran up to where Ash , Misty and Officer Jenny were. Brock was holding Nurse Joy by the hand, making her pant lightly while trying to keep up with him. Chansey and Crobat also joined them.

"Brock!" Misty scolded Brock. In return, he just gave her a faint smile and shrugged.

Up in the balloon, Jessie was fascinated to watch her team on television. She ran over to the edge of the balloon's basket and looked for the camera that filmed them. As soon as she spotted it, she began presenting herself.

"Viewers from around the world! I, the beautiful yet evil member of Team Rocket, would like to announce that we are interested in stealing the most valuable and rare Pokémon existing! So, if you happen to own one, I'm glad to tell you that you will very soon receive a wondrous visit from a member of the glorious Team Rocket! Although I cannot guarantee a magnificent person like myself will show up, I can tell you that a Team Rocket member will!"

As Jessie made her speech, everybody stared in awe at all the things she said.

"This is pathetic!" Ash said to himself.

Jessie suddenly leaned over the edge and placed her hands beside her mouth, for she was now about to whisper something to the camera.

"However, if you happen to receive an awful member called Cassidy, please know that I am in no way associated with her or anything that concerns her being chosen to steal from you!" As Jessie returned to her normal position, she remembered to add something else. "Oh, and that goes for her teammate as well!"

"That's all very nice of you to warn us, but… Let's go, Bayleef!" Ash suddenly ordered. That made the grass Pokémon skip from his left side and stand before him.

Misty decided to join, as did Brock.

"Go, Tododile!"

"You too, Crobat!"

Both Pokémon now stood beside Bayleef.

"Now, Bayleef! Use your Vine Whip to send Wobbuffet back to the balloon!"

"Bay bay!" Bayleef chimed. Two green vines swooshed from both sides of its neck and loosely curled around Wobbuffet, who, with a clueless look, just stood there, motionlessly. As soon as the vines were involving the Pokémon several times, they tightened, and Bayleef tossed Wobbuffet back towards the balloon, hitting Jessie on her face. She fell down, dizzy.

**THUNK**

"And you, Tododile!" Misty commanded the Pokémon she was in charge of, "Water Gun attack on Weezing!"

"Todo!" Tododile happily cried. It jumped up in the air as if it were dancing, sucked some air in and let a jet of water hit Weezing. There was so much force in the water that Weezing ended up clonking James on the head. He toppled over, kind of dizzy as well.

Now it was Brock's turn.

"Crobat! Pop that balloon and send them flying!" he ordered as he pointed to Team Rocket's balloon.

Crobat hopped from Brock's shoulder and swooped up and down in the air until it reached the Meowth-like balloon. "Crr!" it cried as it flew in through one eye of the Meowth and out from the back of its head. That made the air quickly try to escape the balloon, therefore sending Team Rocket once again to the stratosphere.

"Ahh! Team Rocket's blasting off again!" Meowth worriedly yelled as it and its teammates disappeared into the horizon and turned into a little twinkling star.

**PING!**

However, all was not over. Arbok still stood in the festival grounds, hissing from behind a tree it had managed to subtly slid over to.

"Aah!" screamed the reporter who was joining the cameraman present in the festival. "Look! Over there!" he cried, pointing to Arbok. "That Arbok!"

"Sssarbok!" it hissed once again. Arbok now tried to slide closer to the man.

Ash and Misty looked at the scene and exchanged glances. They both nodded to each other.

"Bayleef!"

"Tododile!"

"Tackle attack!" they shouted in unison.

Arbok, knowing what a Tackle attack was, had wide eyes while staring at the two Pokémon who charged against it. Bayleef and Tododile suddenly hit it with all the strength of their bodies.

"Sssarr!" it screeched while disappearing into the horizon, just as its companions had before.

Back at the festival, everybody cheered. Ash, Misty and Brock danced around with the Pokémon they used to battle against Team Rocket, while Nurse Joy and Chansey clapped.

"That was great!" Officer Jenny told the three trainers with a smile as she approached them. "Thanks to you, we may now continue our festival in peace!"

More people cheered, and soon, everybody was enjoying the festival just as they were before. Officer Jenny returned to her duty and so did the other guards.

"Excuse me," called out a man. It was the reporter. He ran towards Ash, Misty and Brock. "I would just like to say that that was fantastic! I was wondering if maybe I could ask you a couple of questions! Individually would be preferred, since I would like to hear your personal opinions without the help of each other…" He looked over at Ash. "That is, if you wouldn't mind me borrowing your girlfriend for an interview…"

"My girlfriend?" Ash repeated with a clueless look. It soon hit him. "Waa? You m-mean Misty? She's not my girlfriend!" he nervously answered. Ash also blushed like crazy. "I-I think I'm gonna go for a walk!" he quickly said. Ash turned around and walked away.

"Uh… I don't really have anything to say," Misty replied. She pushed Brock so that he stood in between her and the reporter. "Why don't you interview Brock? He's got tons of things to tell 'ya!" She then left to go after Ash.

"Hey, Ash! Wait up!" Misty called out after her friend. She soon caught up with him, but he said nothing.

"What's the matter?" she asked, concerned.

Ash approached a nearby bench. It was quite rare to find one that wasn't occupied, so he decided to sit down on this one.

"Huh? Oh… nothing."

Misty sat next to him and both could see that Brock and the others were no longer in sight, for they were lost in the immense crowd.

The water Pokémon trainer wasn't content with Ash's answer, but she didn't feel like starting an argument about it, so she just came up with a new subject instead.

"It's definitely getting kind of cold tonight, isn't it?" she said as she rubbed her hands up and down her arms. It was indeed quite cold. "Just like Nurse Joy said it would…" Misty peered at Ash's face from the corner of her eye to see if he felt better. Or, at least, less uncomfortable.

JIII GULYY PUFF! JIGULYY!"

"Oh, no…" Misty spoke with a sleepy tone in her voice. "Is that what I think it is…"

"Yeah…" Ash began while yawning, "Jigglypu…"

Too late. Both had now fallen asleep for listening to Jigglypuff's soothing lullaby, as had everyone else, for the song came from the speakerphones that filled the area.

Some time later on, people began waking up. Between Ash and Misty, Ash awoke first. He slowly opened his eyes and realized that many people and Pokémon laid on the floor, all with black ink on their faces. He thought he had some as well.

Ash suddenly looked over to his left and found a fiery red head resting on his shoulder. He blushed a little bit in the beginning, and that blush became more apparent as he decided to wrap one of his arms around her. He didn't really know why, but he just felt like doing so. Unfortunately for him, Misty began to wake up.

Since she was just regaining her senses, Misty didn't realize Ash's hand was on shoulder. Therefore, without thinking, she just sat upright. Ash, however, froze when he noticed his friend had awoken.

_Uh-oh…_ Ash thought. _What do I do now? I'm practically hugging her!_

Misty suddenly realized somebody's hand was hanging over her shoulder.

"Uh… Ash?" she asked as she looked at him.

"Waa! I was just… Uhh… Keeping you warm, that's all! You said you were cold, r-right?" he quickly rambled on as he retrieved his arm and stood up, nervously sweatdropping before Misty.

She, in return, giggled.

"What?" Ash asked, confused.

Misty stood up too. She approached him and said, "looks like your face has just turned into another one of Jigglypuff's masterpieces!"

"Huh?" he asked. Ash decided to rub his cheek to check. Since he was left with some ink on his hand, he rubbed most of the ink off his face. He then took a look at Misty.

"Yeah, well, ditto to you!"

Now that he looked at her, he saw noticed some things that he hadn't before, like what she was wearing: it was the exact kimono the mannequin was wearing that day in the kimono store. The mannequin he toppled over. Ash felt glad and proud at the same time when he saw this. He knew one of his best friends so well that he even guessed correctly which clothes she'd pick to wear. And now that he took a good look at her, he wondered how it was possible to label her appearance in so many different ways: she looked endearing, beautiful and cheerful, all at the same time. The exact characteristics that mostly filled up Misty's personality.

_Well, I guess that stubbornness and short-temper can't really be expressed by clothing_, Ash thought. _In that case, her appearance really suits her!_ He giggled.

Misty smiled sweetly. "Oh, yeah!" She also began rubbing her face.

Both were laughing at their painted faces when the crowd opened up and revealed Brock and Nurse Joy back over at the last place they had seen them. By the looks of it, Nurse Joy seemed to be planting a kiss on Brock's cheek, which seemed to make him almost ready to faint. This scene was only visible to Ash and Misty for a short moment, because people soon stood in the way again. However, that didn't stop them from staring in awe at the two and earning each a pair of two brightly colored cheeks. Both stared straight ahead and then at each other from the corner of their eyes.

"U-uh… You'd better not be expecting one, Ash Ketchum!" Misty suddenly burst out.

"Uh… Waa! Now way! O-of course I'm not!"

The two were now blushing even more than before. They decided to check out the rest of the festival and enjoy their last day in the small town, not knowing that soon a message from Misty's sisters would change the routine they were so used to follow everyday together.

-End Fanfic-

:D :D :D Okay, three smilies should express my happiness here! I finished my fanfic! It's my very first fanfic ever! And I finally finished! I'd like to thank you ALL! Especially the people who encouraged me to write a fanfic in the "Shipping Fanfics General Discussion" thread! (You know who you are! **winks**) Thank you, guys!

Let's see, before I go… Humm… Oh, yeah! Remember that in the first chapter of this fanfic, I said that Ash had just finished participating in the Johto League? Well, this chapter says it's before Misty received the awful news that she would have to stay back at Cerulean City, so… That means that this whole story happens in between "Johto Photo Finish" and "Gotta Catch 'Ya Later!".

Well, that's it, I guess…

Please review! ;)


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